I Tried Spotting OPSEC Indicators So You Don’t Get Burned

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You know what? I didn’t think I’d enjoy this. But catching little clues that give away too much is oddly fun. Also a bit scary. I spent the last month testing how well I could spot OPSEC indicators with a small tool stack. I used SpiderFoot HX for scans, Hunchly for capture, and ExifTool to scrub files. Nothing fancy. Just stuff I use at work and on my own devices.

For a blow-by-blow breakdown of my very first pass at the exercise, check out I Tried Spotting OPSEC Indicators So You Don’t Get Burned. It lays out the rookie mistakes and quick wins in full detail.

Let me explain what I mean by “OPSEC indicator.” It’s a hint. A tiny sign. A post, a setting, a tag. One small thing that points to a big thing you didn’t mean to share. Like a breadcrumb that leads right to your door.

So, did my setup help? Yes. It caught real risks. Some made me wince. A few made me laugh, then fix them fast.

What I Ran, How I Ran It

  • SpiderFoot HX: I fed it a test domain we own at work and my own name. It pulls public bits from the web and shows patterns. It found stuff I didn’t know was still live.
  • Hunchly: I used it in my browser to save pages and my notes. So I could show the team and not lose a trail.
  • ExifTool: I ran it on photos and PDFs. It shows hidden data, like GPS or author names. I also used it to strip that data.

I ran this on my MacBook Air, on my home Wi-Fi. A pot of cold brew nearby. I made a checklist, too. Nothing wild. Just “Company name, team names, meeting links, code leaks, GPS, badges, and Wi-Fi names.”

If you’re curious how each piece mapped to a formal framework, my field notes on the OPSEC 5-Step Process—real wins, real snags break it down step by step. You can also skim the concise overview from the U.S. Department of Commerce Operations Security Program for additional context.

Real Things I Caught (That Gave Me That Uh-Oh Feeling)

Many of the red flags below echo the lessons I unpacked after sitting through OPSEC Navy training (and the official NTTP 3-13.3M OPSEC manual); the overlap was a good reminder that civilian shops face the same slip-ups the fleet warns about.

  • A public Trello board with our test sprint tasks. The board name was fine. But card titles spilled new feature names. One card showed a Jira link with a token. I turned it private and rotated the token.
  • An old GitHub repo from a temp branch. It had a .env.sample that was not so “sample.” The file held a real API key. SpiderFoot flagged it by filename and keyword. I killed the key and set a pre-commit hook with gitleaks to catch this next time.
  • A staff selfie on Instagram from last year. Cute team pic, sure. But the QR badge in the frame showed the office guest code. ExifTool told me the phone model and time. The caption told me the floor. We now blur badges. We also change guest codes weekly.
  • A Zoom link in a meetup post. No password. The post had the time and topic. I set a rule: all meetings need a waiting room and a passcode baked in. No raw links in public posts anymore.
  • A Google Calendar invite marked Public. It showed a call name and a dial-in. That title alone gave away a client name. We switched default to “Private” and trained folks on the little lock icon.
  • A Strava route that overlapped with a field site. It even showed the trail we take to the back gate. We built a geofence for staff. We also share runs as “Friends Only.”
  • A picture of a whiteboard in Slack. Zoom in, and you could read a secret test URL. Hunchly made the note easy to share with the team. We swapped to reusable “fake” URLs for demos and put a “No whiteboards in photos” rule on the wall.
  • An S3 bucket with a boring name, but still open to list. SpiderFoot hit it during a subdomain sweep. Fixed with a block public access policy. Also added AWS Config alerts.
  • A laptop hotspot name that screamed our company tag. It popped up in a coffee shop. I saw it on my phone. We now use bland names like “HP-7392.”
  • A LinkedIn job post that told too much. It listed our exact stack and even a tool we planned to ship later. HR trimmed it to skills, not plans.

Speaking of oversharing, older internet users on niche dating boards offer a surprisingly vivid case study in accidental data leakage. A quick browse of local granny dating profiles shows how location tags, daily routines, and even family details slip into the public eye; studying those examples can sharpen your OPSEC instincts by illustrating just how easy it is to give strangers a complete map of your life. On a similar note, browsing the unfiltered spa and massage parlor review threads for suburban spots such as Rubmaps Morton Grove lets you see the same leakage pattern—usernames, timestamps, and casual mentions of home neighborhoods—so you can practice spotting red-flag breadcrumbs in a low-stakes environment before they cost you.

Are these small? Some are tiny. But tiny piles up. One small clue plus one more clue turns into a map.

What Worked Great

  • SpiderFoot’s “wordlist” and “keyword” hits. It pulled team names from paste sites and old subdomains I forgot. It felt like a metal detector for bad crumbs.
  • Hunchly made my notes stick. No “Wait, where did I see that?” I could replay my steps and tag items for action.
  • ExifTool keeps me honest. I batch-strip photos before sharing. That’s now a habit, like locking my door.

Also, the speed helped. In one afternoon, I built a short report with proof, fixes, and owners.

What Bugged Me

  • Noise. Lots of it. SpiderFoot grabs a mountain. You need a tight scope and good filters, or you drown.
  • Names clash. If your company name is common, false hits will wear you out. I had to add minus-terms to calm it down.
  • Hunchly eats storage fast if you don’t trim. I had to archive old captures.
  • ExifTool is command line. I like it, but some teammates won’t touch it. I wrote a tiny script with simple drag-and-drop. Not fancy, but it helped.

My Little OPSEC Indicator Checklist

When I scan, I ask five simple things:

  • Does this reveal where or when?
  • Does this reveal who to reach or how to reach them?
  • Does this reveal what we run or how we build it?
  • Does this reveal a code, link, token, or path?
  • Does this connect two facts that should stay apart?

If the answer is yes, it’s an indicator. Treat it like a spark. It can light a fire if it finds dry brush.

Readers who want to level up their day-to-day privacy routines can find a concise starter playbook on Reason to Freedom.

Tips I Wish I Knew Sooner

When I first started digging around, I literally searched for OPSEC training answers until I found tactics that stuck, then folded those lessons into the checklist below.

  • Set a “no raw links” rule. Meeting links get passcodes. Repo links go through a portal. Public posts get scrubbed.
  • Make boring names. Wi-Fi, hotspots, buckets, repo names—keep them plain.
  • Train with real photos. Show a selfie and play “What did we share by mistake?” People learn fast when it’s real.
  • Use alerts, not just scans. I added simple saved searches for our brand + “.env” and our app names.
  • Rotate keys on a schedule. If a key leaks, the blast zone shrinks.

Who Should Use This Stack

  • Small teams with a web face. It’s cheap and quick. You can run it in-house.
  • Solo founders with one domain and a few assets. You’ll get a lot of value fast.
  • Schools and clubs that post photos. The EXIF clean step alone is worth it.

If you run a big shop, add managed tools and ticket flows. But even then, this setup fills gaps.

Final Take

Is hunting OPSEC indicators worth the time? Yes. It’s like checking your pockets before you leave. Keys, phone, wallet—and your digital crumbs. My stack—SpiderFoot