statutory, subscription and open data
sources.
Due to the current obligation towards
transparency the amount of ‘information &
intelligence’ provided by the government
and local authorities may surprise
some. Information about vehicles, driver
operators, fleet operators (DVLA &
VOSA); information on births, deaths and
marriages details of company finances,
directors and shareholders. Civil Aviation
Authority, Shipping, Solicitors Rolls, FCA,
and other professional bodies produce
information for public perusal… and the
list goes on (there are even database
directories of adult film actors and
actresses!).
The next tranche of usable data is
obtained from subscription databases
that are accessible from commercial
providers. This information is used to
great effect in building a picture of a
subject’s whereabouts and adding ‘colour
and depth’ to information sourced from
statutory databases.
A third tranche is open-source intelligence
gathered from that great repository of data
in the sky (or more likely in massive secure
datacentres located across the globe). ‘Big
Data’ is term used in many industries to
describe the mass of information available
online and it is what it says. Massive
amounts of data which, if you know what
you are looking for, is searchable utilising
numerous specialist tools to sort and
extract relevant intelligence.
And of course there is social media.
Although many users are becoming more
savvy, the willingness for individuals to
publish information about themselves
and their nearest and dearest confounds
those of a more cautious nature. A
significant number of conscientious
‘targets’ who believe they are immune
from these platforms have been undone
by the carefree partner, offspring or friend
providing useful pieces of the puzzle on
social media.
A difficulty for any investigator is that he
is often instructed to find indeterminate
information about a subject from an
unspecified starting point (e.g. “the
subject is believed to hold property assets
through an offshore holding company”)
– an “unknown unknown”. It is here the
researcher / investigator earns his corn.
Specialist data mining tools can make
connections between disparate morsels
of information but it is the experience
and intuition of the researcher that is
the difference between making the
connections and producing the goods or
not. Constantly reviewing and analysing
progress is the essential step in exhausting
all forms of electronic material [it should
be remembered, however, that electronic
information is fallible to input errors, being
out-dated and/or manipulated].
Once all statutory and subscription
database material has been obtained,
once all open-source surface and deepweb data has been harnessed, once all
electronic geo-locating, IT infrastructure
mapping and social media has been
reviewed and analysed, only then should
‘on the ground’ enquiries be considered
and therein lies the next raft of specialist
skills.
The investigator’s territory is far reaching,
diverse and the questions are many and
varied. Wherever there is a who, what,
where, when, why or how, there is usually
an answer and the investigator with a core
business of answering those questions is a
good place from which to start.
B
y Terry O’Connell
clsassociatesuk.com
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