FROST & SULLIVAN BEST PRACTICES AWARD - Cobwebs · Game-changing AI-powered Web Intelligence...

FROST & SULLIVAN BEST PRACTICES AWARD

Technology Innovation 2019AI-POWERED WEB INTELLIGENCE - GLOBAL

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2019 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ...................................................................... 3

Industry Challenges............................................................................................ 3

Technology Attributes and Future Business Value of Cobwebs Technologies ................ 3

Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 6

Significance of Technology Innovation ......................................................................... 7

Understanding Technology Innovation ......................................................................... 7

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 8

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 8

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards .................... 10

Research Methodology ...................................................................................... 10

About Frost & Sullivan ............................................................................................ 10



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

The world’s rising cyber-crime rates are facilitated through Internet ubiquity, the massive

volumes of data available online via the Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices, and

criminals’ advanced techniques to conceal illegal activities such as terrorism recruiting and

planning, drug and human trafficking, and classified government document sharing via the

deep web and dark web. The deep web consists of "undiscoverable" information on the

Internet that individuals cannot access via standard methods—e.g., a Google search—as

such data is hosted on password-protected websites or encrypted networks. Malicious

individuals created the dark web to enable people to maintain anonymity while conducting

illicit activities—e.g., child abductions—in the physical world or upload or access illegal or

sensitive content—e.g., media or confidential information—in the digital realm in a more

closed and private environment than the deep web. The dark web consists of darknets

that contain digitally isolated data often hosted in remote physical locations due to more

lenient laws in less technologically-regulated countries, allowing users to avoid litigation

and potential physical extradition and arrest.

The primary challenge organizations face when it comes to protecting and safeguarding

against dark or deep web-initiated crimes is security teams must search, gather, and

analyze web data manually through siloed systems and various sources—e.g., the open,

deep, and dark webs, platforms, and applications—and then piece that information

together to create a complete picture of an event. Such manual processes often leave

information undiscovered that could be vital to investigations; thus, security teams need

automated and unified analytics solutions equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and

machine learning (ML) capabilities to increase productivity and safety, accurately identify

incidents or planned attacks, and decrease operational expenditures.

Historically, early analytics solutions proved to be less useful than anticipated, leading to

unreliable alerting, multiple false alarms, or failure to report suspicious incidents at all;

thus, many businesses viewed analytics as costly add-ons that provided minimal or no

return on investment. However, advancements in analytics algorithms, IoT-connectivity

proliferation, and progress in ML and AI algorithms have improved these solutions’

accuracy significantly to pinpoint suspicious events and send out immediate alerts.

Technology Attributes and Future Business Value of Cobwebs Technologies

Founded in 2015 and operating from New York and Singapore, Cobwebs Technologies

(Cobwebs) leverages ML and AI-powered analytics to develop industry-leading web

intelligence solutions. The company’s technology enables clients to search single leads and

develop case investigations with information gathered from multiple sources, increasing

security teams’ productivity. Cobwebs serves clients globally in various industries such as



law enforcement, intelligence agencies, border control, public safety, critical

infrastructure, and banking and finance.

Game-changing AI-powered Web Intelligence Technology

Cobwebs integrates its solutions with patented AI and ML analytics algorithms that enable

law enforcement agencies and other clients to search the open, deep, and dark webs for

illegal activities and bring malicious actors to justice. The company’s technology scans a

myriad of data sources based on operator-inputted search terms, and displays any

relevant information through Cobwebs’ intuitive user dashboard, enabling organizations to

build case reports or suspect profiles rapidly. Security teams can define general or case-

specific search perimeters and Cobwebs’ solution alerts operators when new information is

available for review through an automated monitoring feature. Security analysts can also

adjust alerts based on relevance to a specific case or incident. For instance, the company’s

solution rates notifications using sentiment analysis on a scale—i.e., positive, neutral, and

negative—allowing operators to view all the information that meets the operator’s search

criteria most in order of relevance. If analysts need to adjust the presented data’s

relevancy level, they can change it manually, and the platform will use this feedback to

adjust the scoring mechanism as part of its embed machine learning capability and update

future search or analysis to display additional data or adjust the relevance level of other

information previously presented.

Cobwebs’ solution allows operators to track down suspicious people and view their

connections with other people to expand out and reconstruct social circles (i.e., cliques)

and identify other persons-of-interest to build cases. The company’s technology allows

security analysts to conduct deeper dives into presented information to determine whether

they should further investigate or analyze their social circles. For example, an individual

may have over 50 mutual connections with another person on a social media platform, but

that does not mean they are a gang member or involved in a drug network; connected

individuals may be family members or co-workers. Alternatively, in a drug trafficking ring,

cliques can help operators identify drug importers and dealers, including social media

photographs and images obtained through public cameras.

Impressing Frost & Sullivan’s research analysts, Cobwebs’ technology recognizes

landmarks in persons of interests’ images to locate those individuals in real time or for

forensic evidence, drastically reducing a clients’ search time and resources and increasing

public safety and security. Moreover, the company’s technology traces fake accounts to

discover an individual’s real identity through various capabilities such as allowing

operators to extract location information through Internet protocol tracking and

geolocation visual mapping. Cobwebs’ technology enables operators to reduce false

positives and investigate situations deeper than many competing solutions. Notably,

Cobwebs’ solutions allow operators to navigate the deep web and dark web manually and

interact with suspects covertly through avatar management tools.



Cobwebs’ technology is language-agnostic, enabling operators to search across languages to

identify illegal activities. For instance, if a security analyst searches for “cocaine” in a region

bordering the United States and Mexico, the engine will search English and Spanish

references to cocaine and present all relevant information. Furthermore, if a security analyst

only speaks English, they can translate the content into English via the dashboard without

the need to employ a translator, saving organizations operational expenditures. Moreover,

Cobwebs’ technology can search names, images, phone numbers, and both physical and

web addresses. Notably, the platform even detects, displays, and translates information in

languages that use different alphabet types, such as Russian or Chinese characters.

Customer Support, Company Growth, and the Value of Cobwebs’ Solutions

Cobwebs offers customer-oriented acquisition, sales, and lifetime support strategies, from

initial conversation and education to technical support and adding new features and

capabilities to its solutions. In conjunction with extensive research and development

processes, the company collaborates closely with customers to integrate market and

client-specific needs directly into its product roadmap, earning Cobwebs the trust,

business, and loyalty of its clients.

The company’s partnership with Microsoft enables Cobwebs to offer cloud-based solutions,

allowing remote access to searches and investigations. Operators can conduct rapid and

secure investigations from anywhere in the world through the flexible and scalable

platform, enabling organizations of any size to benefit from its technology. Moreover,

Cobwebs provides security-specific solutions, such as criminal investigations, cyber-crime,

drug trafficking, terrorism, situational awareness, natural disasters, cyber threats, and

asset protection, allowing clients to protect their unique environments. The company is

setting the market’s pace through its best-in-class technology and customer support,

positioning Cobwebs as an industry leader in the AI-powered web intelligence market.

Last year, Cobwebs expanded in the North American market and has seen significant

growth in the region as organizations need superior technologies to search, gather, and

analyze information to solve cases quickly or prevent incidents from escalating. As a

recent example, the company worked with a Central American country to gather

intelligence on a lead that a multi-national terrorist group from the Middle East was

attempting to recruit individuals to carry out attacks on government organizations.

Cobwebs worked with a special division in that Central American country to configure their

searches and gather information related to the lead to hunt down the individual

responsible. The culprit was a religious leader who was tracked down through social media

and other various sources where the individual discussed religious extremism, expressed

negative sentiments against the government and praised other terrorist groups’ attacks.

Knowing the religious leader’s identity allowed Cobwebs and the Central American

country’s special division to find other individuals involved in the terrorist group, which led

to the discovery of weapons and explosive-building materials and the detainment of all

participants before they could carry out a terrorist attack.



Conclusion

With Internet connectivity growth, criminals turn to the open, deep, and dark webs to

facilitate their illegal activities. Law enforcement agencies and other organizations need

technologies that assist them in finding these malicious individuals and stopping their

crimes, both digitally and physically. Cobwebs Technologies develops game-changing

artificial intelligence-powered web intelligence solutions that empower organizations to

search, gather, and analyze information across the open, deep, and dark webs to solve

cases quickly, and even prevent incidents from occurring.

With its revolutionary, innovative, and comprehensive technology, exceptional customer

support, and strong overall performance, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present Cobwebs

Technologies with the 2019 Global Technology Innovation Award in the AI-powered web

intelligence market.



Significance of Technology Innovation

Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon finding new ways to excite the

market and upon maintaining a long-term commitment to innovation. At its core,

technology innovation, or any other type of innovation, can only be sustained with

leadership in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and

differentiating from the competition.

Understanding Technology Innovation Technology innovation begins with a spark of creativity that is systematically pursued,

developed, and commercialized. That spark can result from a successful partnership, a

productive in-house innovation group, or a bright-minded individual. Regardless of the

source, the success of any new technology is ultimately determined by its innovativeness

and its impact on the business as a whole.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Technology Innovation Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated

two key factors—Technology Attributes and Future Business Value—according to the

criteria identified below.

Technology Attributes

Criterion 1: Industry Impact

Requirement: Technology enables the pursuit of groundbreaking ideas, contributing to the

betterment of the entire industry.

Criterion 2: Product Impact

Requirement: Specific technology helps enhance features and functionalities of the entire

product line for the company.

Criterion 3: Scalability

Requirement: Technology is scalable, enabling new generations of products over time,

with increasing levels of quality and functionality.

Criterion 4: Visionary Innovation

Requirement: Specific new technology represents true innovation based on a deep

understanding of future needs and applications.

Criterion 5: Application Diversity

Requirement: New technology serves multiple products, multiple applications, and

multiple user environments.

Future Business Value

Criterion 1: Financial Performance

Requirement: Potential is high for strong financial performance in terms of revenue,

operating margins, and other relevant financial metrics.

Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition

Requirement: Specific technology enables acquisition of new customers, even as it

enhances value to current customers.

Criterion 3: Technology Licensing

Requirement: New technology displays great potential to be licensed across many

verticals and applications, thereby driving incremental revenue streams.

Criterion 4: Brand Loyalty

Requirement: New technology enhances the company’s brand, creating and/or nurturing

brand loyalty.

Criterion 5: Human Capital

Requirement: Customer impact is enhanced through the leverage of specific technology,

translating into positive impact on employee morale and retention.



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan analysts follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and

assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the

Awards are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor,

target, and

screen

Identify Award recipient

candidates from around the

globe

Conduct in-depth industry

research

Identify emerging sectors

Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who

potentially meet all best-

practice criteria

2 Perform

360-degree

research

Perform comprehensive,

360-degree research on all

candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders

and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with

best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning of all

candidates’ performance

relative to one another

3

Invite

thought

leadership in

best

practices

Perform in-depth

examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria

Examine eligibility of all

candidates

Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all

ranked candidates

4

Initiate

research

director

review

Conduct an unbiased

evaluation of all candidate

profiles

Brainstorm ranking options

Invite multiple perspectives

on candidates’ performance

Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all

eligible candidates and

companion best-practice

positioning paper

5

Assemble

panel of

industry

experts

Present findings to an expert

panel of industry thought

leaders

Share findings

Strengthen cases for

candidate eligibility

Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized

Award candidates

6

Conduct

global

industry

review

Build consensus on Award

candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to

review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria

Confirm inclusion of all

eligible candidates

Final list of eligible Award

candidates, representing

success stories worldwide

7 Perform

quality check

Develop official Award

consideration materials

Perform final performance

benchmarking activities

Write nominations

Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and

creative presentation of

nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect

with panel of

industry

experts

Finalize the selection of the

best-practice Award recipient

Review analysis with panel

Build consensus

Select recipient

Decision on which company

performs best against all

best-practice criteria

9 Communicate

recognition

Inform Award recipient of

Award recognition

Present Award to the CEO

Inspire the organization for

continued success

Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of Award

and plan for how recipient

can use the Award to

enhance the brand

10 Take

strategic

action

Upon licensing, company is

able to share Award news

with stakeholders and

customers

Coordinate media outreach

Design a marketing plan

Assess Award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of

recipient’s Award status

among investors, media

personnel, and employees



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degree research

methodology provides an evaluation

platform for benchmarking industry

participants and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages more than 50 years of

experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses, and the

investment community from 45 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership,

please visit http://www.frost.com.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS

http://www.frost.com/

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