<!-- Copyright (c) 2026 defconxt. All rights reserved. -->
<!-- Licensed under AGPL-3.0 — see LICENSE file for details. -->
---
name: analyzing-competitive-intelligence
description: >-
  Gather competitive intelligence on organizations through OSINT analysis
  of job postings, patents, SEC filings, press releases, and public
  business records to map strategic direction and capabilities.
domain: cybersecurity
subdomain: osint-recon
tags:
  - competitive-intelligence
  - business-osint
  - job-posting-analysis
  - patent-research
  - financial-intelligence
version: "1.0"
author: defconxt
license: AGPL-3.0
compatibility: >-
  Maltego, SpiderFoot, EDGAR API, Google Patents, Crunchbase,
  LinkedIn, Glassdoor scraping, OCCRP Aleph, OpenCorporates.
metadata:
  mitre-attack:
    - "T1591"      # Gather Victim Org Information
    - "T1591.001"  # Gather Victim Org Information: Determine Physical Locations
    - "T1591.002"  # Gather Victim Org Information: Business Relationships
    - "T1591.004"  # Gather Victim Org Information: Identify Roles
---

# Analyzing Competitive Intelligence

## Overview

Competitive intelligence gathering uses publicly available business information
to map an organization's strategic direction, technology investments, personnel
changes, and partnerships. Job postings reveal technology stacks and security
tool usage. Patent filings expose R&D priorities. SEC filings disclose vendor
relationships and cybersecurity incidents. This intelligence supports red team
planning, social engineering, and strategic security assessments.

## Prerequisites

- Python 3.10+ with `requests`, `beautifulsoup4`
- SEC EDGAR API access (free, requires user-agent header)
- OpenCorporates API for corporate record searches
- SpiderFoot for automated OSINT correlation
- LinkedIn access for job posting and employee analysis

```bash
pip install requests beautifulsoup4 feedparser
pip install spiderfoot
```

## Quick Reference

| Task | Command |
|------|---------|
| SEC filings | `curl -s -A "$USER_AGENT" "https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22target%20corp%22&dateRange=custom&startdt=2025-01-01"` |
| EDGAR company | `curl -s -A "$USER_AGENT" "https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001234567.json"` |
| OpenCorporates | `curl -s "https://api.opencorporates.com/v0.4/companies/search?q=Target+Corp&api_token=$OC_KEY"` |
| Patents | `curl -s "https://patents.google.com/xhr/query?url=q%3DTarget+Corporation&exp=&patents=false"` |
| Job analysis | Google: `site:linkedin.com/jobs "Target Corporation" "cybersecurity"` |
| DNS email | `dig +short target.com TXT \| grep spf` |
| Crunchbase | `curl -s "https://api.crunchbase.com/api/v4/entities/organizations/target?user_key=$CB_KEY"` |
| RSS feeds | `curl -s "https://target.com/feed/" \| xmllint --format -` |

## Workflow

### Step 1: Corporate Record Research

```bash
# OpenCorporates — company registration data
curl -s "https://api.opencorporates.com/v0.4/companies/search?q=Target+Corporation&api_token=$OC_KEY" \
  | jq '.results.companies[] | {name: .company.name, jurisdiction: .company.jurisdiction_code, status: .company.current_status}'

# SEC EDGAR — financial filings
curl -s -A "CompanyName admin@company.com" \
  "https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22Target+Corporation%22&forms=10-K,10-Q,8-K" \
  | jq '.hits.hits[]._source | {filing_date, form_type, file_description}'

# EDGAR full-text search for cybersecurity mentions
curl -s -A "CompanyName admin@company.com" \
  "https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22Target+Corporation%22+%22cybersecurity%22&forms=10-K"
```

### Step 2: Job Posting Intelligence

```bash
# Analyze job postings for technology indicators
# LinkedIn Jobs API or manual search:
# site:linkedin.com/jobs "Target Corp" ("AWS" OR "Azure" OR "GCP")
# site:linkedin.com/jobs "Target Corp" ("Splunk" OR "CrowdStrike" OR "SentinelOne")

# Indeed scraping (automated)
python3 -c "
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
resp = requests.get('https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Target+Corporation+security&l=', timeout=30)
soup = BeautifulSoup(resp.text, 'html.parser')
for job in soup.find_all('div', class_='job_seen_beacon')[:10]:
    title = job.find('h2')
    if title:
        print(title.get_text(strip=True))
"
```

### Step 3: Patent and IP Analysis

```bash
# Google Patents search
curl -s "https://patents.google.com/xhr/query?url=q%3D%22Target+Corporation%22&exp=&patents=true" \
  | jq '.results.cluster[] | .result[] | {title: .patent.title, date: .patent.publication_date}'

# USPTO search
curl -s "https://developer.uspto.gov/ibd-api/v1/patent/application?searchText=Target+Corporation&start=0&rows=20" \
  | jq '.response.docs[] | {title: .inventionTitle, date: .patentApplicationNumber}'
```

### Step 4: Press and News Analysis

```bash
# RSS feed monitoring
feedparser_parse() { python3 -c "
import feedparser
feed = feedparser.parse('$1')
for e in feed.entries[:10]:
    print(f'{e.published}: {e.title}')
"; }

# Google News search
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=Target+Corporation+cybersecurity&hl=en-US" \
  | xmllint --xpath '//item/title/text()' - 2>/dev/null

# SEC 8-K filings (material events)
curl -s -A "CompanyName admin@company.com" \
  "https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22Target+Corporation%22&forms=8-K&dateRange=custom&startdt=2025-01-01"
```

### Step 5: Compile Intelligence Report

```bash
node agent.js --domain target.com --company "Target Corporation" --full --output ci_report.json
```

## Detection Opportunities

- All sources are publicly available — no target interaction required
- SEC EDGAR and patent databases are fully public APIs
- Job posting analysis requires no authentication
- Corporate registry searches are standard business research

## Verification

- [ ] Corporate registration and subsidiary structure mapped
- [ ] SEC filings reviewed for technology and vendor mentions
- [ ] Job postings analyzed for security tool and tech stack indicators
- [ ] Patent filings assessed for R&D direction
- [ ] News and press releases tracked for strategic events
- [ ] Vendor relationships and partnerships documented

## References

- [SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch)
- [OpenCorporates](https://opencorporates.com/)
- [Google Patents](https://patents.google.com/)
- [Crunchbase](https://www.crunchbase.com/)
- [SpiderFoot](https://github.com/smicallef/spiderfoot)
- [OSINT Framework](https://osintframework.com/)

---
v1.0 | Validated: 2026-03-17
