Recently Erin Beffa, Digital Silence’s Threat Intelligence Practice Lead, was invited as a presenter at the 2022 National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) Conference and Expo. She provided hands-on presentations on two topics: “Online Tools for OSINT Online Investigations” and “Using OSINT to Search Individuals and Businesses.”
NALA is the leading paralegal association, representing the interests of the paralegal profession to deliver value and opportunities. The NALA Conference & Expo is the most anticipated paralegal event of the year. The conference’s purpose is to help support the inclusive needs of paralegals across the nation.
Erin’s first presentation highlighted tools designed to help automate and speed up online investigations that can be helpful to paralegals. She introduced technologies and methodologies like search engines, browsers and extensions, historical data lookup tools, image search tools, social media search sites, and investigation organization tools that may aid in an Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) investigation. This discussion helps paralegals understand a vast, new source of information and how to access it.
Her second session helped attendees understand the key differences in leveraging OSINT to search for individuals and businesses. For example, the investigation of an individual may include identifying social media accounts, previously unknown email addresses, additional images of the subject, and finding personal details via people search engines. While investigating a business, documentation and file format searches may bear more fruit. In addition, the discussion touched on breach databases and leak repository websites.
As an OSINT investigator, Erin specializes in online personal data security and has been involved with multiple investigations nationwide. Erin is always eager to share the possibilities of OSINT with a broader audience within the legal profession. She had a remarkable set of presentations at the event and shared her experience:
“This was my first time presenting at a NALA conference. I had a wonderful experience with the staff and attendees of the event. The interaction with the session attendees was lively and engaging, which is always fulfilling as the speaker. I sincerely hope the OSINT topics and resources we covered are helpful to paralegals in whatever future tasks they are assigned. Thank you to the NALA staff for welcoming me to the event in Phoenix!.”
