Constantly demystifying the high seas, Rae Baker has become a trusted expert in uncovering hidden activity on the water.
She’s also the author of Deep Dive, the best book you can buy to kickstart your OSINT journey. It covers everything from the fundamentals of open-source intelligence and operational security to advanced topics like cryptocurrency tracking and critical infrastructure analysis. Here’s the full table of contents.
Today, Rae joins us to discuss her investigative process, her career in OSINT, and what it takes to track global maritime activity.
Below you’ll find lightly edited and condensed highlights from our conversation with Rae.
On finding intelligence at sea:
A lot of what I do is track sanctioned vessels or vessels that are doing things that might be illicit — transferring illegal oil to China or to Russia, that sort of thing. Illegal fishing is a huge one. It’s not hard to provide actionable intelligence, once you understand the patterns.
On detecting those patterns:
The biggest tip is to understand the region because a lot of what happens in maritime is related to international relations-type things like global governmental policies and where people are allowed to sail. If you think of China and Taiwan, people are only allowed to sail in certain areas around there and it's very contested waters.
Understanding the historical significance of the trade routes and the vessels so that you can see when something is anomalous, because a lot of maritime is understanding what is normal and then what is abnormal.
So I will look at an area, if I'm doing like the South China Sea — I might look historically at the South China Sea movements for months, and then I'll go back and look at what is weird. Like do these vessels sail from point A to point B consistently until one day it's going to point C? Why?
That is tip #1.
On keeping OSINT accessible:
I hate when people write blogs and write books and things, and it feels like they're just trying to sound smart. I don’t care if you think I’m smart. I just want you to understand what I’m saying. So I’m trying to break it down for anyone to pick it up and understand the concept and the methodology. Because another thing people in OSINT and the tech industry do a lot is focus on tools. And I think that alienates a lot of people.
On getting started:
My biggest advice is do not get caught up in how you are not technical or you don’t know where to start or you can’t code. Because, first of all, that’s not necessary, you don’t have to. But there’s always someone who is going to know less than you, even if you’re beginning.
The hardest part is just starting. So just start. Just read a blog, write a few sentences, go dig into something that you find interesting. Don’t get hung up on all the things you think you’re not good at.
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