Cyber Privacy

In addition to data protection, our team also advise clients in relation to the unlawful publication of confidential and private information on online platforms including news websites, blogs and social media sites.

Our team also act for those who have been the victims of the sharing and publishing of intimate images without their consent, otherwise known as revenge porn. We have extensive experience of having images removed from online platforms whether the publisher is known, a former spouse or lover, or an anonymous perpetrator. We will investigate anonymous publishers to put an end to this form of harassment and where necessary we will apply for an injunction to prevent continued publication. At all times we will assist in containing the damage caused and our victims of crime specialist can advise on raising a complaint with the authorities.

If you are an individual or an organisation who has been affected by a data breach or the unlawful publication of your data online contact our data protection and cyber privacy team here.

We are experts in hostile profiling and its mitigation, helping safeguard clients and their families.

It is recognised that social media are changing the way people work, communicate and socialise. Increasingly, social media are used for professional purposes within business. They can also be used to support the way in which staff stay informed, follow developments either in the news or in a particular field of knowledge and policy development or partnerships/collaborations. Social media have many positive attributes, but it is also possible through using it to create negative or unintended consequences for people and organisations. It is also currently commonplace for “consented” to be accessed via online platforms to locate individuals, along with the commercialisation of breached databases.

We use digital profiling to help identify online privacy and security vulnerabilities for both high visibility and vulnerable people and to assist in removing data where possible, along with advising users on how they can help reduce digital vulnerabilities through increased awareness levels and possibly changing their behaviour or that of others around them. Each client is given a strategy to implement and moving forward, improve their privacy and security.

Even with the highest levels of security, the human element of an organisation is potentially the most vulnerable to targeting by criminals, in a bid to gain unlawful access to information, data, services, buildings, systems or to specific individuals. By use of blackmail or extortion, an operative may be forced to carry out actions against their will by criminals making threats against them, their families, colleagues or friends.

Due to the rapid development of the Internet & mobile data, along with the unprecedented growth of online social media, never before has so much information been so freely available on peoples’ lives, habits, movements and relationships. The latest smart phones and tablets can create geo-locational data and with the improved accuracy of GPS, the escalating growth of malware, harvesting of personal data by apps, along with the popularity of using social media, a new level of risk exists that has not been experienced before.

For example, company directors and other personnel may not be regular users of social networks or smart devices, but their children, spouse or friends may well be; therefore, by targeting these individuals there is a strong chance of criminals socially engineering their way to the operatives and organisation.

Goals/Objectives

The typical purpose of a client project is to use digital profiling to help identify online vulnerabilities for high profile, high status, high net worth or vulnerable individuals and to assist in removing data where possible, along with advising users on how they can help reduce digital vulnerabilities through increased awareness levels and possibly changing their behaviour or that of others around them.

The key objectives are:

• To identify how easy it is to profile an individual, their family and others close to them via digital open sources, such as social media accounts and other open source information. This will include looking at patterns of life and how they can be used to predict behaviour and movements of the individual or/and family to aid in targeting them or the organisation
• To identify how easy it would be for criminal actors or other potentially interested parties, such as the press, to identify home addresses or movements of their target(s) through open sources
• To identify whether personal data such as phone numbers or email addresses are public and to assess whether email addresses been leaked via any compromised databases.
• To identify whether there are any potentially reputationally damaging social media posts by the client or their family that may need addressing
• To advise the client on any changes that are needed to help protect them and their family through data removal, changes of behaviour and of any technical issues that may also be needed to enhance their security and privacy
• To assist with data removal/deletion where possible