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October 6, 2014
Agencies, such as Echosec, are changing the way we see the online world. Echosec is a popular, up and coming application that allows the user to search via a map system in actual time all over the world. It is widely used among members of the government, police, military and tech savvy private investigators. The free Echosec service enables you to explore public posts from well-known networking sites such as Twitter, Flickr, Instagram and Foursquare through the map system and is available to the general public.
On Echosec, anyone can highlight a certain area on the map. Then, it will instantly tell them where there have been foursquare check-ins, Instagram photos taken, tweets on Twitter, photos uploaded to Flickr and even where ships and boats are. As more and more children and teenagers are exposed to and proficiently using these websites, the chances that someone can find their location greatly increases. More often than not, children are not fully aware of exactly what they are putting online, in regards to photos and personal information.
Once a child (or anyone for that matter) shares a photo on Instagram of what they ate for breakfast, it will be placed on the map on Echosec allowing you to zoom right in to find the exact house the photo was taken in. This amazing feature serves the Triton Group desktop investigations team rather well.
Let’s say that a man is wanted for workers’ compensation insurance fraud. Naturally, this man does not want to get in trouble or possibly face jail time for his crime. He would be evading the law (and any investigators) in every way he could. However, his child may not be so quiet in the online community. This child just posted a photograph on Instagram to share with her friends. Now is when Echosec is able to help private investigators in finding the wanted man. The child’s photo just popped up on Echosec, stating their exact location. Private investigators will be able to confirm that location through their discreet and watchful eyes. They may even have the opportunity to snap their own photos to prove that this man is undoubtedly involved in insurance fraud. Thank you, Echosec.
For another illustration on how Echosec works for private investigators, let’s follow this story. A woman is on workers’ compensation for an injury she sustained on the job. This injury prevents her from walking without the use of assistance, such as a cane. As she goes about her life, trying to maintain her injury, she makes one big mistake. She checks into a national park through Foursquare. Her purpose in doing this was to inform her friends that she was going hiking. She worsens her situation by posting a photo on Instagram of her standing proudly on top of a mountain she just climbed. This woman just made the task of proving her guilty of fraud rather easy. Private investigators now just have to report to the respected companies in order to close up this case. Again, thank you, Echosec.
September 27, 2014
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was first published in 1949. You’d have thought that his vision would no longer be up-to-date 65 years later. The world he described was a world where Big Brother was watching people, constantly seeking information about crime think or any other kind of offence against the glorious super state of Oceania.
Edward Snowden showed us, that what Big Brothers these days are doing is not all that different from what Orwell described. Sure, the technology is quite different from what he had envisioned, but Orwell’s novel is not about science and technology, but about the horrible world where governments might monitor our every move, observe us in our most intimate moments and know about everything we do. Modern day supercomputers, satellites and all sorts of technology make that easily possible for various government agencies.
Yet there is so much information out there that is easily accessible without any spying satellites, supercomputers or without bugging mobile phones. It’s the information millions of users are putting online every day of their own free will, just to get some likes, re-tweets or shares. People tell themselves that they are doing this to stay in touch with each other, but they fail to realize how much of their personal information they are giving away every moment of every day.
With more than half of Australians being active on Facebook, it seems like this would be the most promising social network to start a missing persons investigation. The information found on Facebook is truly varied. There are photographs, comments as well as check-ins that give away a person’s current location. Furthermore there is a time stamp on everything, which makes it easy to create a collage of events a person went through at a certain time. No special equipment is needed for all of this with much of it capable of being performed with a simple smart phone.
Of course people tend to forget, that social media doesn’t mean just Facebook and Twitter. Apart from other household names like Linkedin, Google+ or Pinterest, there are dozens of other smaller, niche websites that cater to all sorts of profiles. Finding information across all of these platforms can turn into a large investigation on its own.
Investigating social media is not only about snooping either. People tend to forget, that Facebook is first and foremost a platform for communication. As many people from the younger generations no longer even have a landline and choose not to publicly reveal their mobile number, Facebook and other social media may be an easy way of tracking them down for communication or to even serve court documents.
September 6, 2014
Open source intelligence, or OSINT, is defined by the ability to gather data (or intelligence) from documented sources that are accessible to the public. The “open” aspect refers to the information being observable and unconcealed from the international community. Basically anyone with a computer can have access to this information or intelligence. People research this intelligence by way of different media sources, such as TV, newspaper, radio and internet, to name a few.
Open source intelligence is now being used by businesses, large and small, to gather information about their competitor’s products, clients and every other component related to the business. This is what is known as competitive intelligence, or business intelligence. In order to get on top and stay on top, companies have to prepare well-planned marketing tools to boost their recognition in the business world. OSINT is a great means for businesses to use because it is legal. There are illicit methods of intelligence gathering on the dealings of competitors, but going that route would look bad for your company.
The use of OSINT also aids in seeking out and locating any possible signs of liabilities and favorable circumstances in the business field. For marketing purposes, it is important to determine these signs of intelligence prior to them being noticeable. That way, any company that has the specific marketing intelligence in hand will be a step ahead of its competitors.
Reverse image search is one method defined by OSINT. Reverse image searches can be done by 
looking up a picture on the internet through a search engine, such as Google. Instead of searching by key words, you upload the picture in the search field. With this technology, one can find a certain product on the internet and then determine where it was originally placed. That would lead the researcher back to the original manufacturer, or company which created the product in question. OSINT used in this way allows you to cut out the middle man.
OSINT also serves companies in a positive manner by providing them with the ability to search for websites which use identical AdSense or analytics accounts. At these websites, you can search for other competitor companies by domain name, IP address, email or ID. With this service, you can find out what company or person owns the rights to certain companies, businesses, products and domain names on the internet and connect the dots. This can be particularly useful when investigating a website which has concealed its registrant details as a link could be drawn between the analytics and adsense accounts connected to the website leading to a positive ID.
August 6, 2014
Social media sites are not unfamiliar to the investigative and legal worlds. A lawyer, whether acting as a defence attorney or working for the prosecution, would be remiss without doing some basic searches among social media, and a private investigator might well find the key to the case somewhere on Facebook or Twitter. A little hunting around might reveal that someone on the other side has been #up to no good!#
Yet Facebook use officially authorised by the court system is of fairly recent vintage. Australia was the first, back in 2008, to allow a Facebook message as a means of alternative service of court papers, in that case a foreclosure notice. Since then, the practise has become more widespread in Australia and New Zealand, joined by Canada in 2011, England’s High Court allowed it in February 2012, and just weeks ago, a state court in New York authorised a father to serve child support papers on his former wife via Facebook message.
It’s logical enough – people being served legal papers of any kind typically don’t want to be found. Often they’ve fled known previous addresses and have taken any number of steps to stay off the official radar, probably changing phone numbers and email addresses. This can make all traditional forms of service virtually impossible. In this social media dominated age, Facebook seems like a viable alternative. Everyone knows plenty of people who seemingly can’t be reached outside of Facebook , but are easy to find (and find out a lot about!) on Facebook.
However, there are a few things the legal world has to watch out for. The court has to be convinced that traditional service of papers has been tried and failed and that the Facebook account belongs to the right person and is still in regular use. Moreover, all of this has to be determined within the legal code of ethics that would forbid so-called predatory friending. An investigator can’t simply send a friend request to the man who defaulted on his mortgage to make sure he’s still getting messages that way.
The use of Facebook messaging in such cases has often moved cases along toward a legal resolution – a good outcome, for sure. In a bit of a twist, Facebook is pretty happy about it, too! Where one might expect the company to wish to avoid the negative associations, when company spokespersons have spoken about it, they have expressed pleasure that courts have validated the security of Facebook’s internal messaging function.
Who knows, it could lead into a new line of business for the social networking site! There is already a growing link between Facebook use and divorce, and there are plenty of Facebook pages, like this one, offering free access to divorce papers and tools for filing them. From start to finish, then, from cause to resolution, Facebook, like Google before it, can be everywhere. With an estimated 1,317 billion Facebook users, there are plenty of potential players in the Facebook legal drama.