The challenge for analysts investigating threat actors across the internet, on the surface, and dark web infrastructures, is to be able to conduct inquiries quietly, anonymously, and efficiently.
This is where virtual HUMINT can play an influential role in helping forensic investigators extract critical information towards completing a compliant and efficient cybercrime investigation.
Cyber threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated and tech-savvy in trying to access personal information and business trade secrets, as well as using the internet for exploitative or malicious objectives.
The types of cybercrime often encountered can include fraud, identity theft, hate crimes, illegal drug-running, human trafficking, cyberterrorism, and online banking hacking.
Analysts and investigators conducting web investigations and trying to manually extract critical insights from unstructured big data, browsing securely with minimal digital footprints, and organizing their findings can find it tedious work.
The various manual methods and tools used in providing a secure environment and for the maintenance of an efficient investigation process can often consume an excessive amount of time – time that could be better dedicated to other vital tasks.
Virtual agents’ security software solutions have been created to provide astute awareness of the nature of cybercrime and its actors. These virtual HUMINTs are built to allow analysts to maintain a secure and efficient investigation while providing a safe, isolated browsing environment to operate in.
As well as enhancing data gathering, specially created platform browser extensions can provide analysts with relevant and critical data in real-time. This is a new automated approach to identity protection, evidence gathering, and threats management.
They can utilize AI-powered web extensions to enable a safe browsing experience for a manual investigation while utilizing automated, smart social media intelligence tools. Automated AI insights can guide researchers through their investigation while allowing a customized environment to protect their identity.
Analysts often work within an encrypted isolation layer to browse the web risk-free and protect their digital footprints. These allow them to automatically manage various accounts and mission-critical data in a controlled centralized environment.
Harnessing advanced, proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies will help meet the requirements of private and government sectors with simplicity and efficiency.
Such critical technology can enable researchers to extract critical intelligence from the web’s big data using the latest machine learning algorithms and automatically generating intelligence – and all at the click of a button.
These capabilities mean security professionals can now connect disparate intelligence data points, creating a rich, colorful, connected, and holistic vision of vulnerabilities, threats, and potential breaches.
These real-time insights help maintain effective protection of employees, executives, and information – whether at work, home, or anywhere along the way.
Solutions also offer continuous monitoring and indexing of the dark web and provide seamless connectivity to thousands of dark web sources. Analysts can search people and keywords to evaluate and monitor forums and markets.
And by discovering stolen data in fraud operations and illegal attempts to sell such information on the black market, from social security numbers to credit card and bank account numbers, analysts can be one step ahead of the game and deliver effective and impactful fraud prevention processes.
