Extracting and analysing VK data with vkXtract
Link to tool: https://github.com/osintersect/vkXtract
OSINT and analytical tools are only useful if they actually help. Tools are great so long as they actually solve a problem, reduce time wastage, and help with data overload – of course! Since this is the first of many posts in the OSINTERSECT blog – or, the ‘OSINT Foundry’ as we will call it; it is the perfect occasion to make a contribution to the OSINT community, especially for analysts and investigators working in Ukraine, by introducing vkXtract. This is the first of many tools that we believe will help and is available for free.
So what is vkXtract? It is a Chrome extension for structured VK extraction and analysis. The idea behind it is simple; it allows you to collect VK data into a local case, review it in a live report, and export a self-contained offline package. As you will see from our video, it has a lot of very nice features which we believe will help data-driven analysts to find the “so what?!” in and amongst the huge piles of structured data that can be obtained via the VK API.
But why an extension you might ask?… The answer is simple, command-line tools are out-of-bounds for many analysts and investigators working on official systems. Also, by creating vkXtract, we are reducing the need for people to be familiar with command-line tools. Above all else, we wanted vkXtract to be another workflow instead of another scraper!
vkXtract is now pushed vkXtract to GitHub, and we have also published a video walkthrough. If your work touches VK-focused OSINT, SOCMINT, or investigative research, take a look. The code is public, the workflow is practical, and we will keep building it out!
