Internet Investigations
Companies, elected officials and persons of public interest today must respond to threats from competitors, disgruntled existing or former employees, jealous ex-spouses, financial fraudsters and social activists who may have a desire to cause you harm or commit financial fraud, while impersonating you or your company’s good name and reputation. Forensicon’s Internet investigation services can provide assistance in these situations.
Forensicon has assisted companies facing unknown rogue attacks on their reputation by researching and locating the person(s) responsible for the rogue or anonymous Internet attacks and identifying other potential persons and companies that may be working in support of the online smear or Internet financial fraud scheme. These rogue and anonymous perpetrators often use Internet proxies to mask their true identity, thereby making the discovery of their identity a difficult and challenging project for most. Simple domain name look ups of the apparent websites or reverse IP address traces often lead to a brick wall in China, or some other country not likely to cooperate with a domestic subpoena issued by a U.S. County, State or Federal Court.
Hackers and online mischief makers often use a proxy or torrent that can allow these cyber bullies to mask their identity. These proxies can mask the real person’s identity by relaying their web traffic source IP address off computers outside of the realm and sphere of control of the U.S. legal system. These internet proxies often cause the apparent source of the defaming content or email message received to appear to originate from a source outside the U.S. that served as a proxy for their web traffic and content postings.
When such situations occur, advance data modeling skills applied to many related data sources can help find the individuals involved. Forensicon has years of experience correlating meta data using advanced structured text queries that enables us to help you find the perpetrators behind the attacks in many cases.
Some of the key related Internet investigation projects Forensicon has experience with include:
- Counterfeit Website Identity Investigations – Determining the Person(s) Responsible for Slanderous or Harmful Website
- Anonymous Poster Identity Tracking & Reconnaissance
- Online Hacker Cyber Security Breach Investigations
- Email Tracing, Authentication and Origin tracking
- Trade Secret Distribution Breach via the Internet or Cloud Applications
- Corporate & Individual Intelligence Gathering
- Social Media Suspect Profiling
Forensicon’s years of experience conducting these types of investigations often enables us to identify the origin of the attacker using our know-how and proprietary data models to correlate and find a needle in the haystack. Correlation of disparate publicly available data as well as data no longer publicly accessible, but archived through various subscription sources that Forensicon has access to, allows us to take an online Internet investigation much further than a highly trained corporate IT security department can typically offer.
Many times, counterfeit or anonymous websites are registered by people wanting to smear or defame a person, elected official or company’s good reputation.
What are the common reasons for Anonymous Online Defamation Posts and Website Counterfeiting?
The motivation for such an Internet smear scheme often includes any or a combination of the following:
- Financial Fraud and Enrichment of the Perpetrators
- Social Activists that Disagree with you or your Firm’s Business or Business Practices
- Bitter Former Employees, Ex-spouses, or Jilted Friends
- Aggressive Competitors Wanting to Soil your Reputation and Steal your Marketshare, Clients and Employees
- Political Operatives Out to Soil you or your Firm’s Influence and Good Reputation
Why Hire an Experienced Internet Detective?
Simple IP searches and domain name reverse look ups frequently fall short of uncovering the origins or identity of a rogue attacker. A vast amount of information is available to Forensicon to help correlate and identify potential suspects. Social media accounts such as Linkedin, Facebook, Google+ and others all have rich sources of personal information that may help identify a perpetrator. Forensicon’s core competency in ESI metadata analytics and data modeling allow our staff to take an Internet investigation to a level and depth that most highly skilled corporate IT departments lack. Forensicon utilizes both public and private subscription online data repositories to find the common link between various websites.
Forensicon has data models that help evaluate related content on the web in an effort to help find the pattern of similarities between the rogue counterfeit website or anonymous defamer. Forensicon has had great success in tracking such attacks so that the motivation and identity of those behind the attack can be discovered. Once discovered, Forensicon can assist with obtaining the desired response from the rogue website. Oftentimes, companies just want the person behind the attack to stop. Sometimes, it is necessary to proceed with litigation to obtain the desired end results. Forensicon has the necessary skills and experience to assist in either case.
When you discover web site content that is harmful to your company, it is imperative that you take immediate action. Websites replicate and syndicate content around the world and beyond recovery usually in under a week’s time and often within hours or days. Time is of the essence to act quickly if you don’t want the offensive pages to be rendered a permanent remnant on the Internet.
If you or your company’s good reputation is being attacked online, or used to commit deception or fraud, call Forensicon today at 888-427-5667 or contact us for a complimentary consultation. Forensicon’s online investigations are billed hourly and start at a project minimum of $2,500.