Investigator tools
Professional platforms for threat intelligence, attack-surface mapping and investigations. Most can surface information about any person, company or system, so use them only for lawful, authorised work.
Intelligence X
Leak and dark-web search engineProfessional
A search engine over leaked data, dark-web sites, paste sites and historical archives, built for investigators.
Best for
- Finding where an email, domain or IP appears in leaks
- Historical copies of pages and documents that have since disappeared
Free tier: yes, with a free account. Fewer results (200 per category versus 1,000 on paid plans), shorter searches and limited data sources.
Paid plans unlock full results, more sources and higher API limits.
Hudson Rock
Infostealer intelligenceProfessional
Tracks credentials and data stolen by infostealer malware, today one of the main ways attackers get into companies.
Best for
- Checking whether employees' or customers' computers tied to your domain have been infected
- Investigating how an account was taken over
Free: lookup tools for domains, emails, usernames and Android apps, including the “Are You Compromised” domain check, and a free one-time company report on request.
Its full platform, Cavalier, is a paid enterprise service.
Censys
Internet scanning and attack surfaceProfessional
Continuously scans the internet and records which hosts, services and certificates are exposed.
Best for
- Mapping an organisation's internet-facing systems
- Certificate and host history during investigations
Free tier: 100 credits a month. A search costs 5 credits (about 20 a month) and a single host or certificate lookup costs 1.
Buying credits moves you to the Starter plan; enterprise plans add full data and integrations.
Shodan
Search engine for connected devicesProfessional
The best-known search engine for internet-connected devices: servers, webcams, industrial systems, routers and more.
Best for
- Finding exposed services and devices by product, port or organisation
- Monitoring your own IP ranges for new exposures
Free tier: a free account with basic search and a free API plan, with limited results and filters.
Membership is a one-off $49: 100 query and 100 scan credits a month, 16 monitored IPs and most search filters.
urlscan.io
Website scannerProfessional
Visits a website in a sandbox and records everything it loads, contacts and shows, with a screenshot.
Best for
- Safely inspecting a suspicious link without opening it yourself
- Finding other pages that share infrastructure with a malicious site
Free: 5,000 public scans, 50 private scans and 1,000 searches a day with an account.
Public scans are visible to others; use private scans for anything sensitive. Paid plans add more private scans and data.
VirusTotal
File, URL and domain reputationProfessional
Google-owned service that checks files, links, domains and IP addresses against dozens of security engines.
Best for
- Checking a suspicious file or link before opening it
- Looking up a file by its hash (see our File Hash Checker)
Free tier: web lookups and a rate-limited public API for non-commercial use.
Files you upload are shared with the security community, so never upload confidential documents. Premium plans are for commercial use.
GreyNoise
Internet background noiseProfessional
Tells you whether an IP address is mass-scanning the whole internet, or is a known harmless service.
Best for
- Deciding whether an IP in your logs is targeting you or scanning everyone
- Cutting down false alarms
Free tier: a free community account for IP lookups, with rate limits.
Paid plans add full context, bulk lookups and feeds.
crt.sh
Certificate transparency searchProfessional
Searches the public logs of every trusted TLS certificate ever issued.
Best for
- Finding an organisation's subdomains
- Spotting look-alike domains that got certificates for phishing
Free: completely free, no account needed.
Run by Sectigo as a public service; it can be slow during busy periods.