Statistics has shown there are 4.9 billions active internet users, this is over half of the world’s
population. Similarly, there are 4.62 billion active social media accounts. We could argue that at least
one third of these are fake accounts. Phishing, this is a type of social engineering attack often used to
steal another person’s data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. Social engineering is
a term used for a broad range of malicious activities done through a number of different human
interactions.

A high percentage of internet users predominantly use one of the big three search engines, Google,
Bing and Yahoo. Outside of the United States, UK and Europe the number one search engine in
Russia is Yandex and Baidu in China.

Very few people actually realise that the surface web, (the top five search engines) only accounts for
4% of the data available on the internet today. Source: Visual Capitalist
Where is the remaining 96% of information stored and what does it consist of?
Good question, the answer to this is the Dark Web also known as the Deep Web. You may have
heard of terms such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and Website page ranking, in simplistic
terms, the remaining 96% of data on the web is not optimised for the major search engines’ crawler
bots, which essentially map and index the content on a web page. These .onion domains are not
registered with the internet’s domain name service (DNS) so to access them you need to use a
special type of browser called Tor.

Have you ever considered just how much information about you or your business is contained in
some of the other areas of the web?
For most people, even the mention of the Dark Web conjures up thoughts of a scary place for illegal
or illicit activities, drugs, guns and a place to purchase stolen credentials.
What does this mean for your personal or business information? Is any of your data available on the
Dark Web? How would you know? How do you begin to search and ascertain if your details have
been compromised by a data breach and subsequently found their way onto the Dark Web?
It is no secret search engines and websites collect our data, most times we even agree to it
happening. The burning question is, how do we establish if our personal, private information is
accessible unwittingly or without our agreement. This could have involved viewing something as
simple as free products or services.

Have you ever wondered why Facebook rebranded to Meta? Those in the know consider the obvious
answer is the hype of the Metaverse and the opportunities that brings. The elements of a new digital
age are converging at scale. The metaverse is the driving force bringing these elements together in a
unified, immersive experience however, if we look beyond the fun, games and opportunities, can we
ever be confident of a fundamental right to privacy and protection of our personal data? Will a whole
new decentralised world make a difference when there are so many data breaches in our current
digital environment, what lessons have been learned?

Would it surprise you to learn Meta (Facebook) allow accounts to be opened using a dark web site?
How would you proceed if you thought your personal or company data had been compromised? Who
may have unauthorised access to such data – email addresses, passwords, phone numbers just to
mention a few.

Consider the option of a no obligation, initial consultation with Fox Robinson Investigations to discuss
how Open Source Intelligence Techniques (OSINT) can help you discover what information is

accessible on the Dark Web and establish how we can help you not to only discover this and what
can be done to have it removed.

We provide numerous services covering different methodologies to establish what can be found on
individuals and businesses then we can discuss the best plan of action, and any necessary next
steps.

You can visit our website or call us directly if your requirements are urgent.

Employee Workplace Investigations

Investigating an Employee or ex-Employee inside or outside of a workplace can cause many
challenges for management. Who is responsible for conducting the investigation, the line manager,
HR or do you outsource the process to a trusted professional with the expertise to fulfil the need to
prove your suspicious, or obtain a conviction during any judicial process?

Workplace investigation can come in many different shapes and sizes for several different purposes
which may include but is not limited to, misconduct, harassment, moonlighting, bullying, discrimination
allegations, or even theft of corporate data or clientele.

Hiring a private investigator to conduct a workplace investigation can help ease any conflict of interest
and remove any emotional attachment to an individual during the investigative process.

Private workplace investigations using Open Source Intelligence Techniques – OSINT can be more
cost effective than surveillance alone. You don’t wish to alert your main suspect that you are on to
them. You need to proceed with caution, act normally, but gain the ‘evidence’ required on which to
base decisions to protect your business.

The circumstantial evidence may include an employee whom you believed to be a trusted member
of your staff, causing you frustration and sleepless nights, the feeling of a physical body blow. The
situation is taking too much headspace, further damaging your usual ability to make sound financial
business decisions which you would normally sail through daily, as part of managing your business.

Scenario 1:
The market in which your business operates has contracted and you need to reduce your head count
accordingly as the business can no longer sustain the number of roles. Unfortunately, a redundancy
process must be implemented.

Unbeknown to you, a senior member of staff sees an opportunity and works on mentoring/priming
those that will be leaving the business with access to highly sensitive information, whilst they
themselves remain in their senior position, allowing a foot in both camps. The mentoring likely
included how to set up a business in direct competition with minimal overheads. Customer lists,
contracts, pricing were all known to those involved, meaning they could hit the ground running at
their given start date.

You need a damage limitation strategy, one which includes concrete evidence showing the activities
of the current and ex employees. Fox Robinson Investigations can help with your workplace,
employee and ex employee investigations.

Financial Gain

Conflict of interest in the workplace often refers to the personal or financial interest of an employee
clashing with their professional duties towards the company they work for. The personal interest can
cause one party to question what the other party’s intentions are, leaving both parties at odds with
each other.

Consider the work of a surgeon, a solicitor or a defence lawyer; generally speaking, we do not see
surgeons operating on their family members, lawyers normally avoid defending their loved ones and
senior managers do not employ close relatives in positions where they would be considered as a
direct reporting line or have influence.

The reason for engaging such practices is about avoiding conflict of interest, divided loyalties or an
invested interest in the situation from which they may either benefit directly or could face
consequences arising from it.

A conflict of interest calls into question the ability to remain unbiased in both thoughts and ideas,
leading to incompatible goals.
If you have suspicions one of your employees or agents may be conducting work for a competitor, you need evidence to confirm or eliminate a conflict of interests, whilst currently all you have are unsubstantiated assumptions which may be taking time and headspace away from the smooth running of your business.

What can constitute a conflict of interests in this type of scenario? How do you go about gaining evidence whilst ensuring your employees are either unaware, not made to feel uncomfortable, or you simply wish to keep an investigation separate/isolated/remote from the day to day running of the business?

Here are a few examples of a conflict of interests:

• Using sensitive information about the company by which they are currently employed, for self interest and financial gain. Example; An employee who is working for one company while talking to a vendor about going to work for their company at a future date. Or, an executive chooses a vendor and enters into a business relationship with the company, yet they own shares in the vendor’s business which they have not disclosed.

• Conducting work for a competitor or being paid by a competitor as a consultant or advisory capacity. An example could be something as simple using their work account on certain paid tools and programs to manage their own list of clients for their personal business.

• Setting up a business in competition with the one in which they are currently employed, just waiting for the optimum exit timing. Work performance may be compromised and deteriorate due to potential ‘burn out’. Internal and external stakeholders’ relationships may suffer damage as a consequence.

• Whilst in a senior decision making role, failing to disclose a personal or family relationship which may affect your business, either during their tenure or, once the employee has left the business. This could relate to feeding sensitive information for use with a competitor. Alternatively, the personal relationship choice of employee, perhaps for a new role or a new project may well be based upon merit however, it could cause hostility amongst co-workers and affect the balance of the team or the team spirit.

• Accepting inappropriate gifts or engaging discussions with current or prospective contractors or suppliers for financial gain. Accepting gifts could appear totally innocent at the time but the employee may be held to ransom by the one offering the gift, at a future point in time.

What ever your suspicions consider a no obligation, initial consultation with Fox Robinson Investigations to discuss the option of Open Source Intelligence Techniques (OSINT) and how it can help.