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By Bruce Anderson
There’s a new breed of super sleuths emerging in the virtual world of the web. If you are an Internet troll, cyber criminal or an anonymous defamer you might not be as safe behind your computer as you think you are.
Seemingly hidden behind the protection of the Federal Communication Decency Act 230, there has been a dramatic increase of attacks by anonymous bloggers and posters on social media sites, blogs, and complaint sites by ex-employees, ex-spouses, ex-partners, and competitors. This alarming increase of attacks, most of them done in the privacy
of their own home, and has created a new niche market for Internet detectives, online investigators and cyber sleuths.
These online detectives are being summoned by clients to investigate corporate brand assassinations, extortion and embezzlement, Internet defamation and libel, cyber stalking and harassment, and in general tracking down anonymous attackers that are known as ghosts.
One of the biggest challenges that Internet detectives fine is that 85 to 90% of their investigations are tracking down anonymous attackers, that are hiding behind throwaway e-mail addresses, proxy servers, and rotating IP addresses all for the purpose of being able to attack someone anonymously. We find that many of these online attackers are sociopaths and narcissists that display very aggressive behavior, they think there that are smarter than the average bear, and they typically don’t respond to idle threats and in fact become more aggressive when challenged.
What most of these aggressive Internet trolls don’t realize is regardless of their Internet savvy, they typically leave a significant footprint that is traceable by professional Internet detectives and law-enforcement.
One cyber intelligence agency that we spoke with,(Rexxfield) told us that they are approaching a 90% success rate in tracking down online anonymous antagonists for their clients.
So let’s take a look at what it takes to become an online super sleuth.
BACKGROUND
First of all there are very few Internet detective agencies worldwide. The reason for this is that the barrier of entry is fairly difficult because this new breed of online detectives are typically ex-law enforcement officers, private investigators or network security analysts, and ethical hackers, that have decided to take their skills and utilize them online to catch criminals, Internet defenders, and hackers. It is very helpful if you have a nose for this stuff because many times what you are really having to do is to think like a criminal, bad guy or hacker in order to catch these anonymous attackers red-handed.
METHODS OF TRACING AND TRACKING DOWN ATTACKERS
SOCIAL ENGINEERING
One method that online detectives utilize to catch anonymous attackers is what is called social engineering. This is really the art of understanding the mentality of an online attacker, reverse engineering your way into them, and then setting up traps through the utilization of honeypots,web bugs, and other proprietary tools in order to capture the IP address, location, and Mac addresses of the online attacker. A good social engineer can find you,through your surfing habits, social media, e-mail, blogs, RSS, and even your favorite websites. In other words, if you are an anonymous attacker you really can’t hide if you utilize the web.
INTERNET FORENSICS
Another way that Internet investigators can find you is through the use of Internet forensics to analyze the web and traces that you have left behind while bidding your evil deeds. A good investigator can take one or two pieces of information like an e-mail address or web address and typically then find out a slew of information about you. They can find out things like where you live, how much you pay for your house, what website you own, what social media you’re on, phone numbers, e-mails, friends and Associates, family members, even when you were married. While this is a tedious and time-consuming process, a professional online investigator can hunt you down like a bird dog.
DIGITAL FORENSICS
Depending on the circumstances, an online investigator can gain access to your computer, phones, iPods and almost any other electronic device and run digital forensics on those items and find every e-mail, deleted file, deleted pictures or just about anything else that you have placed on those devices. In other words it is practically impossible to hide digital information once they can gain access through legal methods to your electronic devices. They can also zero in on which computers you are using, fingerprint those computers and even identify your location and MAC addresses.
SUBPOENAS-COURT ORDERS-WIRETAPS
For those cases that are more serious in nature like Internet defamation, cyber stalking, embezzlement, extortion, computer hacking etc. online investigators and detectives utilize legal instruments to produce subpoenas, court orders, online wiretaps and other various tools in order to track down information and evidence worldwide.
If you happen to be a person or company that has come under attack online you also have to understand that a lot of the electronic evidence is perishable and needs to be moved on very quickly in order to capture the evidence needed. The challenge with this is most attorneys are not trained on how to track down electronic evidence nor do they think like hackers or computer web experts. For this reason it is very important that you seek out a professional online investigator that can help close the gap between 20th century tactics in a 21st-century electronic world.
It is important that the persons or firm representing you specialize in Internet law, Internet forensics and privacy.
It is unfortunate that the Internet has both a bad and good side to it. Unfortunately we get numerous calls each day from individuals, celebrities, corporations and dignitaries that have come under serious attack by an anonymous antagonist. In most of these cases the online detective approaches the investigation much likely would murder case. It is the process of tracking down bits and pieces of information and then connecting the dots in a way that positively identifies the attacker. So if you have been thinking about attacking your ex employer, spouse, friends,competitor, or company that you’ve bought goods and services from, you need to make sure that what you say and do are legal and protected by law. Otherwise you may find yourself surprised when you get a knock on the door by your local law enforcement serving you with a warrant or lawsuit for the actions that you have taken online.
About the Author: Rexxfield is a team of online Cyber Specialists that focus their efforts on Cyber Intelligence-Internet Defamation-Reputation Repair for individuals, celebrities, corporations and dignitaries worldwide. East Coast +1 (813) 684-6018 West Coast +1 (408) 916-5977.
Source: isnare.com
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