Metadata

What is Metadata

Data that describes other data, such as the author, creation date, and software used in a file or image.

Expanded Explanation

In OSINT, analyzing metadata from documents or images can reveal critical information like usernames, file paths, device identifiers, or GPS coordinates. Tools like ExifTool are commonly used to extract metadata for intelligence gathering.

Related Terms

Data Leakage, File Analysis, Geolocation, ExifTool, Intelligence Gathering

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Zaid Sabih
Zaid Sabih

Ethical Hacker, Pentester & Computer Scientist

Zaid Al-Quraishi is an ethical hacker, computer scientist, and founder of zSecurity. He studied CS at UCD, graduating May 2016.

Zaid has a strong background and experience in ethical hacking, starting with tutorials in 2009 in an ethical hacking community, iSecur1ty. He also worked as a penetration tester (pentester) for this company.

In 2013 he started teaching his first course online in Arabic which received extremely positive feedback. This motivated him to create an English version of the course. The English course became the most popular and top paid course on Udemy for almost a year, which further motivated Zaid to design and teach more courses on ethical hacking.

He now offers a number of courses on ethical hacking and more than 800,000 students on Udemy and other teaching platforms such as StackSocial, StackSkills and zSecurity.

Zaid says: "I just love hacking and breaking the rules but don't get me wrong, I am an ethical hacker!"

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