“An Insider’s Guide: Investigations in the Dark New Digital Age”Don Aviv (PCI, CPP, PSP)

President - Interfor International

LEADERS IN CORPORATE INTELLIGENCE SINCE 1979

Interfor International is a global investigations and security consulting firm offering comprehensive intelligence services to the legal, corporate and financial communities across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Australia and Africa.

• Interfor’s investigations provide comprehensive background information about new business relationships, prospective partners in mergers and acquisitions, venture capital investments and much more.

Due Diligence

• From breach of contract to price fixing cases, we conduct all aspects of the litigation process- including pre-trial intelligence gathering, discovery, trial preparation, international asset search & cross border, and witness location.

Litigation Support

• Specializing in asset investigations for law firms, corporations, family offices, banks and bankruptcy trustees, Interfor has developed unique techniques to identify, trace, freeze and recover hidden assets.

Asset Search & Recovery

• To keep our clients’ personnel, assets, intellectual property and trade secrets safe, Interfor offers a full range of physical & cyber security and threat management consulting services.

Physical & Cyber Security

1. Who is the Modern Fraudster?

2. Trends in Global Investigations

3. Internal Hacking and Asymmetric Cyber Warfare

4. Investigations Powered by Social Media Research

5. Preventing Fraud against Corporations

Who is the Modern Fraudster?

• Corporate Insiders◦ Disgruntled Employees

◦ Desperation

• Lone Wolf ◦ Criminals

• Hacktivists

• Criminal Networks

• Nation States

• Terrorist Groups

How do they do it?

• Tech-savvy

• Social Engineering

•Acts remotely

•Utilizes Offshore Banking

• Travel-heavy Lifestyle

•Utilizes Cryptocurrencies

• A conservative estimate of 3.6 terabytes of data have been stole to date

• Last year, experts identified over 600 million lines of malicious code circulating in cyberspace

• In nearly 90% of cases, hackers rely on computer bugs that have existed since 2002

• Law Firms: Since 2012, 9 major law firms have been hacked. 64 mid-sized law firms have been hacked as well.

• Creativity & exploitation of human weaknesses

Tools of the Cyber Criminal

How are they targeting YOU?

• $$$

• Theft of Trade Secrets/IP

o Dark Web Market

• Kompromat – Cyber Extortion

• Mischief

• Social Engineering (direct & remote)

• Extortion

• Malware & Ransomware

• Targeted Hacks (spear phishing/social engineering)

• Scams such as CEO Spoofs (dragnet approach)

• Insider Breach: Accidental or Malicious?

Tools of the Cyber Criminal

What Methods?

Why?

The Rise of Cyber Warfare

Targeted Attacks vs. Dragnets• CEO Phishing • Private Equity Scams

Cyber Extortion & Bitcoins• Bitcoins, TOR and

anonymous email

Trends in Asset Investigations

Modern Fraud & Cross-Border Investigations

• Step 1: Find the Fraudster• Lifestyle (Family, Friends, other Victims)• Corporate Holdings and Affiliations• Income• Property Holdings• Banking Relationships

Trends in Asset Investigations

Hunting Tools: Reverse Social Engineering

Social Media Investigations

Social Media Investigations

Social Media Investigations

Cyber Fraud: CEO Spearphishing

Cyber Threat Case Studies

KEY ELEMENTS OF ADVANCED DUE DILIGENCE

How to assess trustworthiness, reputation and morality – where possible & practical

• Identifiers• Suspected Red Flags• Corporate Affiliations, Interrelationships• Criminal Record, Sanctions Lists• Litigation, Judgments, Liens, Bankruptcy• Financial Profile• Company: Ultimate Principals

The Rise of Tech-driven Investigations & Artificial Intelligence

Cheap and Fast – Big Data• Automated web crawling and

learning - Aggregators• Technology-enabled red-flagging

of issues• Good for repetitive screening of

public sources

Problems• Lack of true analysis• False positives and negatives• Fraudsters know how to create

fake data & impersonate others• Omits non-public sources• Commonality of names, erroneous

underlying data

The Case for Human Intelligence

Investigation as a Craft: Art & Science• Stolen Identity: Singapore Case Study

Local Knowledge and Relationships - CRITICAL

Deep Dive Analyses• Assessments of key players • Interviews with neighbors, friends• Reputation inquiries with business associates, former

secretaries, disgruntled employees

The Future of Due Diligence: Intelligence CyborgsIntegrate AI into the Intelligence Value Chain

• AI alone is like a self-driving car• Process Automation complemented by Hand Searches• Old School Methods and Curious Minds supported by powerful Technology

Will AI Kill Classic Investigations?• Investigations are judged on what they MISS• AI cannot assess character and reputation of business partners, potential

investees and debtors • Technology cannot replace boots on the ground

Vulnerabilities of Your Company

Weak Cyber Protections

No Detection or Early Warning

Systems

Excessive Amounts of Unsecured

Mobile Devices

Insider Threats from Disgruntled

Employees

No Data Security Plan to Avoid Fraud

Preventing Fraud Attacks

• Conduct a comprehensive asset inventory

• Conduct ongoing risk assessments

• Engage senior management

• Make security part of workplace culture

• Constantly test security policies and procedures

Frequent password updates

Simple Steps

https://haveibeenpwned.com

Double verification for wire requests

NO PUBLIC WIFI!!!!!

Vulnerability tests – Red teaming

Clean devices for travel to high cyber-risk locations (China, Russia, Israel, India … US?)

Contact

Don Aviv CPP, PSP, PCI

Don.Aviv@interforinc.com

Thank you for attending!

Questions?