The words serial killer and spree killer are often thrown around in movies, documentaries, and news headlines as if they mean the same thing. They both involve multiple victims, which is probably where the confusion starts. But in criminal investigations,…
Television has convinced us that criminal profilers can glance at a crime scene and instantly reconstruct an offender’s personality, habits, and life story. Reality is considerably less dramatic, but far more interesting. Criminal profiling is neither mind reading nor investigative…
In cybersecurity, we often spend millions of dollars and countless hours studying the threat actor. We map infrastructure, dissect malware, and reverse-engineer code. But any experienced security consultant knows that looking at the exploit only tells part of the story.…
When people think about threats to a company, they usually imagine hooded hackers sitting in dark rooms, furiously typing while green text scrolls across their screens. Hollywood has done an excellent job of selling that image. In reality, however, some…
When people hear the word “forensics,” they usually imagine crime scenes, fingerprint powder, or somebody in sunglasses dramatically removing their gloves before announcing the victim died “between 8:13 and 8:17 PM.” But not all investigations happen in dark alleys or…
If you spend enough time reading about cyberattacks, criminal investigations, espionage, or serial killers, you eventually notice something interesting: investigators from completely different fields often describe criminals in surprisingly similar ways. A cyber threat analyst might say, “The attacker reused…
Smurfing is one of those criminal techniques that sounds oddly adorable until you realize it’s basically financial hide-and-seek with regulators. No, it has nothing to do with tiny blue cartoon characters opening offshore bank accounts. It’s called smurfing because of…
When someone dies under unclear or controversial circumstances, investigators typically begin by searching for physical evidence. Fingerprints, blood patterns, toxicology reports, phone records, and surveillance footage are all part of the traditional investigative toolkit. However, in some cases the most…
Geoprofiling means geographic profiling. It’s an investigative technique used in criminology and criminal profiling to estimate the most likely area where an offender lives, works, or frequently visits, based on the locations of their crimes. It’s mainly used in serial…
