I recently received a text from my teen that looked something like this:
"Bruh, I’m about to dip, but fr lowkey SMH. Bet, I’ll catch u IRL l8r. Lmk if u want a boba. Tbh, it’s giving ✨broke✨ rn but I’ll Venmo u."
If you’re scratching your head—welcome to my world. The Gen Z vernacular and emojis can feel alien to anyone outside the loop. But, whether it’s teenage slang, technical jargon or extremist rhetoric, language plays a foundational role in forming group identity. For open‑source intelligence (OSINT) analysts and investigators, recognizing and understanding the unique language patterns used by our targets—be they criminal networks, extremist groups, or specialized sub-cultures—can be critical to success.
In this blog, we’ll explore how understanding distinct lexicons, slang, or coded symbols can make all the difference in OSINT investigations.
Keywords: Keeping us on Track
In OSINT, a crucial part of our job is to find key pieces of information amongst a vast ocean of publicly and commercially available data. It’s easy to drown. Understanding language and lexicons used by our targets can help us refine search terms and structure our collection activities, ultimately to find that essential piece of intelligence.
Think of keywords as beacons in rough seas, they assist in our navigation, establishing parameters and filters to keep searches focused and relevant. Developing a keyword management process is a key step in collection efforts, and a curated glossary—a list of keywords organized around specific themes or topics—can be a simple way to hone search terms and ensure your research is both efficient and comprehensive.
Building an effective glossary doesn’t have to be overwhelming; the more you read about your target, the more you can refine and pinpoint useful keywords, terms and phrases. In some instances, pre-curated lists online can be a good starting point. Whether you’re building a glossary from scratch or adapting an existing one, some brainstorming early in the collection planning phase goes a long way (see Pro Tip No.1). Flexibility is also important; using synonyms can help capture a broader range of results. For example, when investigating a maritime incident, using varied keywords can help capture a broader range of results. Instead of just searching for “boat accident,” consider adding terms like “vessel collision,” “shipwreck,” or “capsizing.” Each term may yield different perspectives or relevant details that you might otherwise miss.
Lastly, treat glossaries and keyword lists as live resources. Language changes rapidly, so it’s important to review and update your keywords regularly. As my teenager has explained to me on many an occasion – by the time I decode the Gen Z lingo, those words are no longer cool.
Pro Tip No.1: Keywords, glossaries and lexicons Give yourself a head start on building an effective glossary by drawing on established keyword lists. Some lexicon resources we draw on for our OSINT activities include:
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Understanding Lexicons: The Benefits for OSINT Activities
Language within specific groups reflects the unique identities, values, and internal dynamics (see Pro Tip No.2). Criminal elements, social sub-cultures, and even professional organizations use distinct linguistic patterns, including specific jargon, slang, and coded symbols, to create a sense of identity, build loyalty, and communicate covertly within their group. Recognizing and understanding group-specific language provides several benefits for OSINT activities, including:
Improving search precision and minimizing noise. Understanding language patterns and lexicons allows OSINTers to refine search terms for more targeted results, including through the useful technique of negative keywords. For example, if you’re investigating “Delta,” simply searching for the word might lead to irrelevant content on the Greek letter, river deltas, or an Australian singer! Adding targeted terms like “Delta Air Lines” or “Delta flights from Atlanta,” or using negative keywords such as “-river -triangle -variant,” helps keep results focused.
Identifying affiliations. The use of specialized language or jargon often reveals a person's connection to a specific group or ideology and can shed light on a group's overall dynamics. Detecting certain rhetoric, or use of professional jargon, can help OSINTers build profiles of an individual, confirming or disproving affiliations, background, training, or beliefs. Spotting certain slang or hashtags associated with an event or ideology can be equally useful. Large-scale events with political or social implications frequently generate unique slang and hashtags, e.g. “#BLM” (Black Lives Matter) or “#FreePalestine”.
Detecting intent or escalation. Language shifts, such as a rise in dehumanizing terms (for example, “parasites”, “vermin”, and “dogs”) or increased mentions of violent intent, may indicate an individual’s or group’s readiness for action. Monitoring these changes, through techniques such as sentiment analysis, could help analysts provide early warning advice.
Exposing evasion tactics. Groups often use euphemisms (for example, organized crime gangs have used “wedding” or “celebration” to indicate planned attacks), coded symbols, and even emojis to evade detection by authorities (for example, drug traffickers sometimes use 🍒 “cherries” or 🍫 “chocolate” to represent ecstasy or other drugs). Recognizing these codes may enable investigators to intercept plans disguised as harmless messages, facilitating timely intervention.
Pro tip No.2: Context is key! Situational awareness is crucial for keyword management. Understanding the context of who, what, where, when, why and how the information you are reviewing has been generated can increase the relevancy and accuracy of your keywords, terms and phrases. For instance, it is important to consider the country or region relevant to your search and include keywords in your glossary that mirror colloquial or regional-/country-specific terms and hashtags used in social media or local, traditional media reports. An example of incorporating country-specific colloquialisms could be adding terms such as ambos (paramedics), fireries (firefighters), and coppers (police officers) when investigating criminal activities or threats to major events in Australia. And, for native language searches you may also need to consider country-specific OSINT methods. Our blog Country Specific OSINT: The Chinese Internet has more tips on adapting OSINT methods to specific regions and native language users. |
Conclusion
Language is a powerful tool. Recognizing and understanding how it is used by our targets is crucial for OSINT investigations. Developing a curated and well‑structured lexicon, paired with a keen eye for language nuances and evolution will afford greater search efficiency, and help OSINT practitioners spot relevant information, or turn covert messages into intelligence insights.
To finish as we started (and to make my teen cringe!)…
"Aight, fam, that’s a wrap! Hope this blog was straight 🔥 and gave u the deets on leveling up ur OSINT game. Catch ya l8r—stay savvy✌️ "
Ready to take your OSINT to the next level?
Check out NexusXplore’s new Lexicon feature update to access customizable, curated keyword lists that will speed up your search for insights, keeping you on target to identify and understand information relevant for your investigation. Request a demo here!