In this article, I’ll show you how I solved the OSINT Quiz 006 from Gralhix. I give myself 30 mintues to solve it. Enjoy!
Problem
Caption “BREAKING: TTP carried out a suicide attack on a police post in Khyber city of Pakistan that killed three Pakistani police officers.“ Image
Verify the image but don’t go after the journalist
Tldr : The photo was not taken in Pakistan and it’s not a TTP attack. It’s orginally taken in Iraq.
Reflection
I restate the problem in my own language to simplify it. (Problem Restatement)
I restate the problem in the following : “There was a terrorist attack in Pakistan. A journalist claimed that the picture attached as the attack mentioned. I need to find out if the photo really was the terrorist attack mentioned (TTP attack in Pakistan)?”
Next, I have to verify it. How can I tell if it’s true? Simple, I need to find out whether it was really happening in Pakistan. Then if it’s really in Pakistan, I will dig deeper to see if it’s really the TTP attack which the post describes.
Next as usual, I use Yandex as a starting point. I noticed some results that can reveal the answers :
- I noticed Cирия (Syria), but is it really in Syria though? I don’t know either but, that’s not the task.
- I find another news in Turkish dated 2013. I find it suspicious at this point.
- I find a nother source in russian with the caption НОВОСТИ АФГАНИСТАН СЕГОДНЯ (News from Afghanistan Today?)
I concluded that the photo is not a TTP attack. Besides, the photographer didn’t even take it in Pakistan at all.
During this quiz, I found out who the journalist was. I decided not to dig further however, because that’s not the task. So we’re back to the initial question.
I have answered the question, although my curiosity remains. Where was this photo taken, really?
I decided to dig further for the answer, then I found a page from Wikimedia. The Wikimedia description lists US Navy as the source with the link to US Navy official site, although the link is dead.
I suppose there is a way to find the archive, but I haven’t learned that far yet. So I decided to end this task. After this, I will attempt the next OSINT Quiz.
So that’s my Write Up for OSINT Quiz 006. I found how my little russian knowledge can help me answered this quiz.