Jan 22, 2020
NEW YORK, January 22, 2020—Cobwebs Technologies, the specialized open-source web intelligence company that supports national security agencies, law enforcement agencies, and corporate security departments in rapidly identifying and locating malicious threat actors on the open, deep, and dark webs, is entering the American market with an office in New York City. With little more than a click, Cobwebs makes it highly difficult for terrorists, active shooters, hackers, and other criminal entities to hide, plan, communicate, or ply their nefarious trade in any part of the online world.
Designed by intelligence experts with operational experience in the field, Cobwebs is a machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) powered web intelligence and investigation platform with strong Natural Language Processing capabilities. It extracts targeted intelligence from Big Data and automatically generates intelligent insights. In 2019 Frost & Sullivan presented Cobwebs Technologies with its Global Technology Innovation Award in the web intelligence market. The company has established offices in Singapore, New Delhi, and will soon open new offices in London and Frankfurt.
“Organized crime groups and lone wolves are increasingly using the web to communicate, plan and hide online. They know how to conceal their plans and mask who they are. This presents an ongoing challenge for investigators,” observes Johnmichael O’Hare, sales and business development manager at Cobwebs Technologies. “We turn the tables on all threat actors by giving investigators access to a tailored Swiss-army-knife array of high-powered online intelligence and investigation tools unsurpassed in the field.”
Investigators need just one small lead for the platform to direct them to not only where the threat actors may be hiding, but also to the location of potential evidence needed to accurately build a case and successfully prosecute nefarious individuals. The Cobwebs platform does not determine if the located data is evidence. Rather, as O’Hare explains, “The platform acts as a compass that points investigators to critical intelligence required in an investigation without delay, and it moves them directly through the intelligence cycle to the due diligence and the evidence vetting process.”
The Cobwebs platform works in a similar manner to an Internet search engine. An investigator inputs search terms relevant to the case they are working, ranging from names, keywords, hashtags, locations, websites, social media accounts, photographs, batches of numbers including telephone numbers, and cryptocurrency wallets. With one click, the platform initiates a rapid, deep search through open-source information located on all layers of the web and on all social media platforms and blogs. As soon as data is located that matches the search term requirements, it is analyzed and displayed on an intuitive user dashboard. This gives investigators the ability to identify threat actors and new threats, prevent incidents, confirm and validate evidence, or rule out irrelevant information. Its fully automated capabilities enable the user to perform active intelligence operations with minimal effort.
In addition, the Cobwebs platform helps investigators identify and reconstruct profiles that link suspicious individuals to their contacts, and it reveals how they connect and come together as a group. People outside of a group can also be identified so that investigators can determine if they should be conducting additional investigations. The platform allows users to develop target profiles, map groups, manage critical events, and leverage operational dominance.
“Besides being able to reach anywhere online on a global scale, the Cobwebs platform has an unsurpassed capability to accelerate the investigative process, cutting days, weeks, and in some cases, months, off a case,” adds O’Hare. “This helps investigators identify perpetrators and prevent terror attacks, protecting infrastructure, businesses and reputations.”
Its high-powered intelligence, natural language processing, and online search capabilities make the Cobwebs platform ideal for delivering specific investigative components required by law enforcement, national security agencies, anti-terror units, immigration, cyber authorities, public safety, and border control entities in the government sector. In the private sector, it is well suited for corporate security teams, financial services markets, and security departments protecting America’s critical infrastructure.
From a privacy perspective, the platform locates information already in place on the Internet. All agencies using Cobwebs Technologies have their own internal user protocols and oversight to protect the privacy of citizens.
The company provides the web intelligence solution, trains investigators how to use it, and provides after-sales support to all clients.
