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Oftentimes, investigators do not possess ample information to launch a person of interest investigation. They may have a name or an alias as a starting point, which is the most common scenario but not the most optimal, as these types of data are not always strictly linked to a unique individual.
While people may randomly share a name or an alias without being connected in any other way, a phone number or an email are data types that investigators may pivot off of with a much higher degree of confidence in the results. However, a phone number or an email might not yield as much information as a name or an alias.
To conduct a successful person of interest investigation, an investigator must combine the previously mentioned types of personal identifiers in order to harvest the maximum amount of information.
We demonstrate this and the investigative steps you can take in your Maltego in the whitepaper below.
Person of Interest Investigation Using Leaked FSB Agent Phone Number 🔗︎
Not so long ago, a list of phone numbers—supposedly belonging to employees of the Federal Security Service (FSB), one of the main Russian security agencies, was published by the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
We will investigate one of these leaked phone numbers using Maltego Graph in an attempt to validate it and leverage Maltego Data to learn more about the individual associated with it, including their personal information, social media footprint, and professional affiliations.Investigation Method and Objectives 🔗︎
Download Whitepaper 🔗︎
Access the whitepaper below to get a full overview of the investigation, the steps you can replicate in Maltego, and other investigator tips for person of interest investigations using social media and breached data.
Download the resource
Your Next Step After Reading the Whitepaper 🔗︎
Person of interest investigations can be made easier by using compromised records, as they can help uncover email addresses, domains, IP addresses, names, passwords, and other personal identifier information. This can be used to map a subject’s online presence, identify threat actors, and determine a company’s breach exposure.
Watch our deep dive with the largest compromised data provider, District4, where we show steps in Maltego to demonstrate the breadth and depth that breached data can bring to your investigations.
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Happy investigating!
About the Author 🔗︎
Jules Brahms Jules Brahms is a Subject Matter Expert at Maltego, where she supports the trust and safety needs of brands, companies, and platforms, drawing on her experience as a trust and safety professional with a background in incident response, product abuse, and misinformation prevention. In her role, she develops workflows for trust and safety practitioners and conducts training with teams to build capacity in risk assessments, the handling of misinformation and electoral manipulation, and person of interest investigations. Previously, Jules worked as a Subject Matter Expert for online radicalization and misinformation at trust and safety provider ActiveFence, which delivers trust and safety solutions to leading online platforms.
