The international company Group-IB, having made its name in fighting cybercrime, is opening up a new track in its business – financial investigation for corporate clients.
According to data from Group-IB, 78% of Russian companies acknowledge that at least once over the last three years they become victims of economic crimes. As a rule, 7 out of 10 investigations that cybercrime specialists conducted revealed signs of money laundering, theft or fraud.
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) describes economic crime as “low risk-high profit, making it a very attractive activity for organized crime groups.” According to the agency, this is because the likelihood that fraud will be detected and prosecuted is low due to the complexity of the investigations required. Considering this trend, the company decided to offer a financial investigation service for businesses.
“A company today can come across all sorts of fraud on differing scales such as dishonest borrowers, unreliable contractors, corporate disputes, and corruption schemes can influence a business’s sustainability to the point of fatal consequences,” said the head of the cybercrime computer lab at Group-IB Valery Baulin. “Today, traditional types of economic crime are done using digital devices. Analyzing these devices and ensuring that digital evidence is secured legally is a manifold task, and the outcome depends on the quality of the solution. In 17 years of work not a single expert has been brought to court. This allows us to take on the most difficult tasks and carry out a comprehensive investigation of the incident, starting with gathering evidence, including the use of eDiscovery and data recovery to ensure the completeness of the investigation, and ending with project’s support in court.”
According to Mr. Baulin, Group-IB’s advantages include many years of experience – work with Russian and international law enforcement bodies, a complex approach to investigation with the use of big data analysis technologies, a collection of digital fingerprints, and also extensive opportunities in digital forensics, including the detection of important digital evidence among deleted data.
The company is offering two types of financial investigation services – audit check and financial forensics. The goal of the first is to detect suspicious transactions within the company in a timely manner. Financial forensics takes place after an incident and it uncovers signs of corporate crimes, evidence of the illegal withdrawal of assets, theft, financial fraud, abuse of authority, deliberate bankruptcy, it determines the range of possible persons involved, and helps in forming a position to appeal to the court.
