Every so often, a task requires several elements of the Valkyrie skill sets to be utilised in a holistic investigation. Our client was involved in a litigation battle against contractors and suppliers. The client had disclosure obligations, so our forensic specialists were called upon to preserve hardware and data from various mailboxes, laptops and mobile phones for the legal team to analyse. Our client successfully won the litigation battle and was awarded a significant settlement and legal costs.
However, this was not the end of the matter, as the other party started an online smear campaign against our client. Our intel analysts collated this evidence during our holistic investigation, and the legal team contacted the platforms to remove the misinformation.
We gained a considerable amount of information via Open-Source-intelligence (OSINT), some of which enabled us to gain further information via Human-intelligence (HUMINT), leading us to a meeting of individuals in London. From the intel we gained, the meeting appeared designed to spread misinformation and discredit our client to other potential clients, contractors and contacts. Based on this intel, we were able to deploy human assets to the meeting location in advance and identify attendees.
It was great to see our teams working together in this holistic way and deliver the investigation across multiple service lines (cyber, data analysis, surveillance) to relay accurate/usable intel and evidence to our client’s law firm.
The key to this task – like most – was in the planning and conducting an honest appraisal of what can be achieved legally and without compromise, especially when tasked at short notice. It also helps to have an excellent team of operators you know you can trust to deliver, technically and physically, every time.
Images included are not of the task mentioned.
