On my way back home, my driver said, Sir, we common people are very lucky that if we commit some fraud, we are not easily detectable.
He looked at me through the mirror while I was smiling at his innocence. However, The next moment, I decided to explain to him the power of OSINT industry searches in investigating and detecting criminals.
In short, I explained to him how the OSNIT can uncover hidden connections and track suspicious behaviors of any individual who has left even a little information over the Internet.
I explained to him the best OSINT framework techniques that can help businesses detect people with criminal backgrounds, which we will discuss in the later part of this writing.
Hiding identity and activities in this technologically evolved era isn’t less than a luxury lifestyle.
However, it seems impossible since everyone has already exposed his information online by allowing social media platforms to access their complete data.
OSINT methodologies for investigation and detective purposes have been in place for centuries, but at that time these techniques were used manually and only by militaries and detectives to reveal someone’s hidden information.
But now that time has evolved, so have the techniques and methodologies.
In this blog, we will discuss the different OSNIT Techniques a business can use to detect and combat the people behind money laundering crimes. Lets get started with the OSINT industry understanding.
Exploring OSINT Industry Digital Footprints
As the Excessive data of individuals is available over different digital platforms, businesses and particularly financial institutions can use such data to check what individuals are doing in their lives by assessing their behavior and association with the people.
OSINT has made it possible for many, from militaries, investigators, government offices to financial institutions.
The data is then analyzed by different bodies, including regulatory bodies that are fighting money laundering and other fraudulent activities.
OSINT technique allows businesses to harness data from different platforms and assess the risk level customers can pose using their online presence and connection with criminal and suspicious transactions.
You must be asking what those techniques are. Let’s explore them together
5 OSINT techniques for betterComplianceiance Program
Web Scraping
We all know that information from billions of people is uploaded to millions of websites. We have to scrape the relevant information from that unstructured data to manage the connection our customer built with some suspicious actors.
You must be surprised to know how a business can extract relevant data from such big data.
So, the automatic scrapping tools do it for us at a fast pace. And how does it work? Well we define the script before implementing it on the available data, and then The already-defined script identifies trends, patterns, and connections related to money laundering activities using scrapping software.
This technique is particularly useful for tracking the digital footprints of individuals and entities involved in financial transactions.
- Social Media Social
The social media has evolved as the major source of gathering information as every individual must be using either one or another SM platform.
So, I will analyze and monitor platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram for relevant information.
This technique helps businesses Identify profiles, posts, and interactions related to individuals or entities of interest.
It has been observed that social media platforms are rich sources of personal and professional information.
Therefore, analyzing social media activity can be beneficial for businesses to reveal connections between individuals and entities that might otherwise remain hidden.
- Public Records Research
Compliance officers must dig deep into records before onboarding employees, clients, and business partners. They must use publicly available government and legal documents to gather information.
One could make this possible by obtaining data from court records, business registrations, land ownership documents, and other official sources.
If a company gathers the above information, it will help build comprehensive profiles of individuals and entities to assess their risk.
It seems complicated and hectic, but these public records provide verifiable and often detailed information that can be crucial in AML compliance, even in verifying the legitimacy of their clients and partners.
- Image and Video Analysis
This is the most interesting OSINT technique. Using this technique, the compliance team can analyze information from images and videos that are available on different platforms.
The companies can use techniques such as reverse image search and metadata extraction.
Image and video analysis can uncover hidden details about suspicious people and their interactions.
It can also provide context to other data points, enhancing the overall understanding of potential risks.
- News and Media Monitoring
Staying updated with the latest news and monitoring procedures is the most important factor for any organization’s financial crimes.
They need to update adverse media reports regularly. informatAdverseverse media screening can help examine the OSINT alternatives to make more informed and strategic decisions about your AML compliance program.
News and media monitoring helps keep AML professionals updated on the latest developments and potential risks in the financial landscape.
With the ever-evolving techniques of money laundering and other financial crimes, businesses need to be more optimistic and advance in their efforts to combat these crimes.
OSINT’s advancement has somehow helped financial institutions make more informed decisions.
But businesses can’t follow all these techniques simultaneously, so there must be a single solution.
AML Watcher provides one such solution for businesses following the AML compliance program.
The updated global watchlis, and adverse media list allow you to search millions of records in seconds with zero false positive rates and with 50 % less compliance cost.
