Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence is often misconstrued as the corporate or national spy getting a visiting businessman drunk and then milking him for secrets, usually using a sultry honey pot to trap him and coerce him to spill the beans.

            The reality is that this method is actually called Corporate Espionage and it is highly illegal. This is not to say that it doesn’t happen, but it is best to stay away from people offering these types of services to a traded company.

            What Competitive Intelligence (CI) provides, is focussed research and data gathering skills used in open source intelligence methods to develop an intelligence package on a competitor or specific market subset which enables a company to develop and revise strategy to keep it at the front of a particular marketplace.

            As opposed to Business Intelligence, which is software and systems based market tracking technology, CI is primarily human driven and precise, designed to discover competitor strategies and trends ethically and intelligently to bring the most relevant data to your staff to enhance your corporate goals.

            CI can also be used in reverse, targeting your own company to detect leaks and clues your own competitors are trying to discover about your strategy, enabling you to shut down the leaks and protect your corporate planning process, allowing you freedom of movement in the marketplace.

            CI is a highly cost effective and efficient method for obtaining market data which can be used to protect your strategy and develop plans to offset competitor developments.

            Many private investigators have the ability to perform your Competitive Intelligence and investigations tasks, often remotely where the need for direct travel is limited by using a variety of online and real world resources to meet your CI needs. PIs maintain great flexibility for short term and long period deployments of intelligence resources to fit your goals. Contact one to find out more in your local area or abroad. The majority of service providers should be able to put together a solid idea of how they can help and work with your staff to target specific points or sectors to maximize your their, and your, efforts.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Hiring A Private Investigator

I had the pleasure of taking part in the private investigations industry in Ontario, the CPI-O, annual meeting in Toronto last week. It was good to get together and talk shop with others in the industry, as well as a few beers off the clock, and get back to basics.

It was also good to go over some of the issues affecting the industry and talk about our collective qualifications and what it means to hire a professional Private Investigator (PI).

Many people do not think of hiring a PI on a regular basis as private individuals, however, business and law offices regularly will reach out to us to obtain services. While the exact nature of the service can vary as widely as corporate counter-intelligence to infidelity investigations, they all have one primary goal in common....to find needed information.

Regardless of whether you are interested in hiring a PI for any one of the three main lines of investigations: Domestic, Legal Support or Corporate, there are a few rules of thumb which you should look out for to make sure you are getting a professional versus some random guy with a Craigslist account, pretty much regardless of where you are in the world.

First off are the basics of a profession: agency licence, individual licence, insurance and belonging to some sort of professional organization. These requirements are law in most areas, and really ensures you will have at least a basic level of competence as you move forward in the selection process. The licences are obvious signs that they are operating legally, and insurance is usually a requirement of the licencing process, but you should also look at the professional organization. In Canada, it is a requirement to be compliant as an investigative body under the national privacy legislation. In other areas, as well as Canada, they tend to demand adherence to a basic code of ethics and professional standard to give you some piece of mind that your investigator of choice is acting appropriately, even if you aren't aware of the regulations.

Next, you will want to ensure your investigator is open about pricing, plan, the investigator on scene and rough timelines. I'll be honest here, investigations aren't cheap, that's why you never saw Magnum driving a Chevette. Going to a guy who promises dirt cheap investigations but then hides what the final bill is, or is evasive on an estimate, is likely not a good choice. A professional PI will be up front about pricing, should provide you with a clear estimate and advise if there is the potential for cost overruns if things go squirrely, which can happen. They should also be forthcoming about a timeline and plan for the investigation. If they cannot provide this to you with a service agreement to make things legit, you might want to avoid handing over that deposit (which usually is required for service from domestic clients).

Lastly you will want to ask about what your PI can do, how he or she plans on going about it and why they are able to do it. Beware a PI who claims they can do everything or they nod as you ask for them to insert a brain probe in someone's head. There are many things which aren't legal (depending on the jurisdiction/country). Hiring the sort who is willing to do these things is tempting them to just walk with your deposit, leaving you with no real recourse to recover your money...or worse, they will go ahead with it and open you up to third party liability if something goes horribly wrong. Also match up why they are qualified for a particular task. Many of us offer general investigations, which means we dabble in all types, but each of us has a particular skill we excel at. Its not to say that we can't do a particular job, just that you should ask why they can and how they will go about it. They should once again be open and honest.

That about does it for the general aspects of hiring a PI. The big part is, know a bit about the laws in your area and ask questions of your PI of choice. They should answer all your questions clearly, or get back to you soonest if they need to research a more obscure rule. And always make sure they are licenced in some way, and if no licencing exists, that they belong to a professional association.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

PI's, Privacy and Social Media

Social media has become an important source of info for many people. Social media companies themselves sell off our data, statistics and preferences for huge kickbacks from ad companies, more and more of which are becoming social media interfaces as well. Credit agencies use this info as well as they compile overall profiles of each person, which gets augmented by other info sources we sign away to get a cheap discount on something.

Then comes us...the PI. I love using social media as a source, however make note to never abuse it as a tool, which is an important distinction in developing these source types as opposed to merely thieving data to help push out products, as our investigations focus on legal data for the assistance in compiling a case for court.

People think that the biggest leak of info from social media that people can exploit is poor settings on privacy. While this info is indeed a goldmine for someone researching another individual, it often is not the only method.

A good investigator will look not only at what is plain and obvious, but will build link table s and relational charts on what is not there as well, plus look into second and third party affiliations to build a strong profile.

What people need to know on the privacy side though is how to keep data off of these pages which can harm them hen accessed by bad guys.

The first step here is to set a good password and not share your account info with anybody...and for the love of god change your password if you do and you break up with that person....immediately!

Next is always assume that all of your info can be shared online. Some sites like Facebook are pretty good at blocking out data thieves (of course only so that they are the only ones able to profit from it), but there are newer social media sites which can provide a ton of info, but are not yet mature enough to have a robust privacy policy and secure access points to user info.

Lastly, know who you are connected to and what they have access to. While I'm not here to lecture, I do not think that people need to befriend everyone who asks online to seem popular. These other people may not be as security conscious as you are, and once someone finds out you are associated to them, can be exploited to reveal info about you.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Protecting Yourself Online

Online investigations are something we look at fairly often here in the office. Most often, the cases we look at are cyber harassment investigations and cyber-bullying in nature. These case types of course have been well publicized of late, particularly in the sphere of cyber-bullying, with heart breaking examples such as Amanda Todd, Jamie Hubley and Rehtaeh Parsons. Other major problems include identity theft which is increasing in scope yearly and encompasses financial and non-financial aspects and various hacking methods (which here will be a catch all phrase for system breaches of all types).

While the threat source on all of these problems can vary from schoolyard punks to co-workers to ex-lovers to unknown offshore hackers, the facilitator of these problems usually rests at the feet of the victim themselves. While I hope this is not a surprise to many, it is an unfortunate truth that there are still many, many people who fall victim to a wide array of online problems daily.

The main source that people gain access to information which should not be in someone else's hands is that which is freely given. That is, naked pictures to lovers, inappropriate jokes to friends and dark secrets to associates or forums when in all cases people think the information will stay safe forever. Obviously, this is not the case and highlights the unfortunate realities that the vast majority of these cases could be stopped by just paying a bit more attention to what we give out to other people and educating youth who have not yet seen the really nasty side of society to withstand potential pit falls.

The other main source of information getting out into the wild which can then be used against us is again the fault of the victim in most cases by using poor passwords. One just has to do a look at the top 10 passwords in the world to discover that even in the year 2013, the most popular continue to include 1111, 1234, password and the user's own name. There are programs out there which scrape e-mail accounts and then attempt to access them by using the top bad passwords out there. Password sharing is also a great source for a bad guy or girl to get their hands on a user account, as people assume that someone they are dating will be around forever or a co-worker who needs a quick access to a system will never use it against the victim.

True hacking actually comprises a very small amount of breaches as it requires quite a bit of skill and resources to pull off, which makes your average victim an unlikely choice for attack by complex methods. Usually the info was just out there for a keen eye to grab and exploit.

As such, there are some basic ways to protect and educate yourself and your kids (and the elderly as well who may not be as tech savvy as some). First and foremost, outside of the online world, be aware of sensitive materials given out. No duh huh? It seems easy at a glance, but you would be shocked at the types of graphic materials handed out by kids in school....as young as 10 and younger. This does still apply to adults as well and really comes down to knowledge of the reach people now have and the anonymity people can enjoy when a relationship falls apart to broadcast material given in confidence to a large and damaging audience. Next is passwords. Make them long, unique and use symbols to create something, not just the easiest thing to enter into the keyboard. Next, if you give out your password to anyone, change all linked accounts or those sharing similar or same passwords. People are lazy by nature and tend to use the same password or password family for multiple sites, a fact which is exploited by people looking to exploit you. Remove cloud storage access permissions if you suspect a breach of your files, as people may use access to one system to maintain access through a backdoor in another. Use up to date and well reviewed antivirus software. Even free antivirus can keep you secure from most threats as long as it is up to date and turned on to medium levels. The same goes for operating system software like Windows and Apple OS, which deliver periodic updates to patch known vulnerabilities. Finally, ensure you watch what you click, as the majority of spyware and system viruses are still delivered through e-mail where a person needs to click on a suspicious link to unknowingly download a virus.

Should you find yourself with information which has been leaked onto the net and is being used against you, contact local police. If the nature of the harassment is of imminent danger, they will be able to initiate an investigation. If it is of less immediate danger, they will open the file regardless, but outside resources will be requires to launch the investigation. Contact a Private Investigator if this level of investigation is needed. They will have experience tracking down the perpetrator, or at least locating the instances of harm being broadcast on the net to help shut them down. By and large, these investigations are classed as domestic investigations which require the investigator to have access to often embarrassing details before beginning. Ensure to interview your investigator in order to ensure you have an appropriate comfort level before intiating service. Visit us at www.elementalpi.ca if you would like more information, or visit the RCMP Internet Security site at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/qc/pub/cybercrime/cybercrime-eng.htm

Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing in todays corporate environment is slowly gaining steam around the world. The US has brought in some strong legislation to enable a whistleblowing culture to develop, including the two most key aspect...reward and protection from reprisal. Unfortunately here in Canada, we are woefully behind the times and cannot seem to get some decent legislation out of Ottawa to help foster this type of shift in corporate responsibility.

Surprisingly, most companies who have adopted this model now find this to be a great way to operate, except of course the slimier companies helmed by the folks these programs are meant to uncover. Boards find this a great way to showcase openness and to stem the potential for destructive insider fraud and compliance problems which can decimate and even lead to the bankruptcy of major corporations.

Setting up a good program, even in the absence of direction from Ottawa or the provinces is a great selling point for companies in terms of openness and ethical corporate responsibility, on top of keeping rogue CEOs and CFOs from hitting the self destruct button on a company once fraud has been uncovered. An effective program will enable clear and anonymous messaging options (which can be set up through disinterested third parties via phone or e-mail drop boxes, and ensure that all complaints will be addressed. This then allows for a corporate investigator to come into a case and conduct either a due diligence check to see if further investigation is warranted, or begin a full investigation should the allegations prove to be credible. It is always a good idea to run these investigations openly as much as possible as this is a great motivator for employee and investor confidence, however there are times when covert investigations are required. Reporting chains and authorization should be set up before hand, and reports should be presented to someone who can act on recommendations, such as the legal department or the Board of Directors, but not usually the C-class executives.

There are a number of professionals who can conduct varying investigations in support of whistleblowing activities, including forensic accountants, IT professionals and Private Investigators

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca and ask about what can be done to suit your needs