The leak of classified documents by Jack Teixeira, an airman first class of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has sent shockwaves through the intelligence community. While Teixeira has been identified and arrested, the investigation is far from over. This article delves into six forensic investigation techniques that will be used by federal investigators to reconstruct the events surrounding the leak and secure vital information in his prosecution, all of which are used everyday by my team at RosettiStarr in investigations we conduct every day.

1. Digital Forensic Evidence: Tracing the Electronic Footprints

Digital evidence plays a crucial role in most modern forensic investigations. Investigators will be analyzing Teixeira’s electronic devices, including his computer, smartphone, and any external storage devices, to find traces of leaked documents and communications with others. These digital footprints can reveal valuable insights into his motivations, accomplices, and the scope of the breach.

The advanced digital forensics tools and techniques that can be used include file carving (a forensics technique used to extract a formatted file or data from a disk drive or other storage device without the assistance of the filesystem that originally created the file), analyzing metadata, and tracing IP addresses. In the case of Teixeira, investigators may use these techniques to recover any deleted files or communications that could point to accomplices, motives, or methods. They will also analyze his browsing history, email records, and messaging apps to determine if he was in contact with any foreign entities or other individuals who may have encouraged or facilitated the leak.

2. Public Record Evidence: Building the Profile of the Suspect

Public records can provide extremely valuable retrospective information in forensic investigations. To better understand Teixeira’s potential motives and connections, investigators will turn to public records to build a comprehensive profile of the suspect.

Investigators will be pouring over his employment and military service records, court documents, and any previous criminal history. These records can shed light on his background, qualifications, and any potential red flags that may have been overlooked during his security clearance process.

Additionally, they can scrutinize online public records, such as social media accounts, to understand his social circles and potential accomplices, sometimes with the assistance of a subpoena. For instance, they may examine his open internet comments and accounts, but also non-public information such as connections and direct messages on platforms like Discord where the leaks initially occurred, as well as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and others. Those links will enable them to identify individuals who may have had access to the leaked documents or who may have encouraged Teixeira to carry out the leak. Public records pertaining to personal assets can also help identify any financial irregularities that may be linked to the leak, like unexplained wealth or transactions, although he was living with his parents and does not obviously have unexplained wealth. You never know for sure until every stone is turned over.

3. Documentary Evidence: Uncovering Timelines and Hidden Connections

Investigators are likely to examine a host of documents and records to gain more insights into the case. First and foremost, will be the leaked documents themselves. While retyped documents pose more of a challenge than images posted of printouts or images of digital records, analyzing their contents, and comparing them with the authentic versions can help establish timelines based on cached version histories. If the contents have been altered or changed over time, this can help expose any political or ideological motivations. Access logs to classified files can help identify other conspirators or sources of leaks.

There are also private records in the custody of Teixeira and other third parties likely to be examined. While there has been no obvious malign international involvement, Teixeira’s personal correspondence, financial statements, and any other personal documents that may shed light on his activities and linkups leading up to the leak.

His bank statements and credit card transactions will be checked for unusual spending patterns or financial connections to foreign entities. Any personal journals or diaries may contain information about his thoughts, plans, or motives. Encrypted messaging apps and other private communications will be checked for discussions related to the leak or potential accomplices, although their content will likely have to be subpoenaed.

4. Open-Source Intelligence: Gathering Information from Publicly Available Sources

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of publicly available information from sources on the open, dark, and deep web, such as websites, social media platforms, and online forums. Investigators in the Teixeira case have already utilized OSINT to track down the initial source of the leak. However, there is still a wealth of information to be explored.

By monitoring online platforms, such as Twitter, Telegram, and 4chan, where the leaked documents were shared, investigators can identify potential accomplices, gauge public sentiment, and uncover new leads. They can also use advanced web scraping tools and machine learning algorithms to sift through vast amounts of online data, searching for patterns or connections that may be relevant to the case. This can include monitoring unique hashtags, keywords, or user accounts (including fake accounts or those used in botnets for other known foreign government or private operations) associated with the leaked documents or individuals involved in the case.

Additionally, investigators may examine the online activities of Teixeira and his connections to see if any indications of the leak were missed early on. By analyzing their social media posts, online interactions, and digital footprints, the investigators can gain a better understanding of the dynamics and relationships that may have played a role in the leak.

5. Observational Evidence: Examining the Physical Environment

Observational evidence, such as surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts, can provide vital context and corroborate other forms of evidence in a forensic investigation. In the Teixeira case, investigators may review security camera footage from his home, the SCIF (a sensitive compartmented information facility where trusted personnel work with classified material) where he worked or accessed the leaked documents, or other locations he frequented. This can help them build a detailed timeline of events leading up to the leak, identify any suspicious activities, or even spot potential accomplices.

6. Eye-Witness and Expert Testimony: Gathering Firsthand Accounts and Expert Conclusions

Eyewitness testimony from those who interacted with Teixeira before and during the leak can offer valuable insights into his motives, actions, and associations. These firsthand accounts can help paint a more complete picture of his character and behavior, potentially revealing warning signs or patterns that went unnoticed.

They will surely interview family, friends, and coworkers in his National Guard unit to gather additional information about his behavior, state of mind, and potential accomplices. These interviews can reveal personal relationships, conflicts, or other behavior that may have contributed to the leak. Moreover, they may provide crucial corroborating evidence to support digital and documentary evidence. Expert testimony can also explain the authenticity, accuracy, and potential impact of the leaked information.

Challenges and Future Directions

As the investigation continues, several challenges may arise. The sheer volume of digital evidence, including social media posts, online communications, and leaked documents, can be overwhelming for investigators to sift through. Advanced analytics tools and machine learning techniques used in voluminous document reviews can help streamline this process, but the sheer scale of the data remains a challenge.

Another potential issue is the international nature of the case. The leaked documents have implications for multiple countries, which can create jurisdictional challenges and complicate the investigation if others are involved. Cooperation between international law enforcement agencies and intelligence organizations will be critical to overcome these obstacles and ensure a thorough and effective investigation.

COMMENTARY

By R. Jeffrey Smith

Managing Director, RosettiStarr LLC

(A version of this article was published on March 26, 2023 in Barron’s.)

Everything looked ideal, until it didn’t. A supposed whiz kid with MIT branding who had made a small fortune in currency-price arbitrage invited investors to make much larger fortunes, using a special trading sauce whipped up for a hot new financial arena. He set up a workplace offshore—but wasn’t everyone working remotely anyway? He had a cherub’s face, an earnest demeanor, and an impressive family pedigree.

Sam Bankman-Fried even looked the tech-guru part, dressing in classic sweats and cultivating a reputation for long office hours and ascetic living. He claimed, moreover, to be earning huge sums of money mostly to help others and make the world a better place. He spoke inspirationally about how his trading company would soon become accepted as a repository of savings and a venue for low-cost transactions. Its revenues were reported to have jumped from $90 million in 2020 to more than a billion dollars in 2021.

Bankman-Fried’s firms—FTX and Alameda Research—imploded spectacularly after a nine-day downward spiral in November that wiped out billions of investors’ dollars, led to his arrest, and forced him to surrender control. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty, and the courts will decide his liability. But as far as investors are concerned, the FTX saga is hardly the first time investment assets have evaporated on this scale amid plentiful signals that mischief was afoot, a lesson that hasn’t fully sunk in and could easily be missed again.

Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme defrauded thousands of investors out of tens of billions until he was arrested in 2008. Bankman-Fried’s operation echoes one set up 17 years earlier by a Texan named Allen Stanford, who set up trading operations on an island, hired his former college roommate as an executive, arranged off-books loans from his firm, and went on to fleece thousands of investors out of roughly $7 billion, some of which he spent on real estate and other lavish perks. Stanford was convicted in 2012 of defrauding customers and sentenced to 110 years in prison.

Watching another big scandal unfold—followed by congressional investigations amid hand-wringing about regulatory distraction—prompts fresh wonder about whether the financial system is so rickety and reliable corporate data so spare that ambitious investors are simply doomed to periodically lose their shirts. Investors looking at recent crypto losses have reason to ask whether the FTX fiasco could have been foreseen, and whether the problems that are now dogging Bankman-Fried are lurking elsewhere.

A third of the members of Congress—who recent tallies indicate took in roughly $93 million in political donations from FTX employees over the past two election cycles, funds they were asked to return by the end of February—clearly did not ask those tough questions. But a close look at FTX’s history makes clear there were red flags that could have sowed alarm for potential investors, regulators, and politicians, if only they’d conducted a serious research effort and paid attention to the results.

To start with the basics, Bankman-Fried was candid long before his indictment about his weak preparation for creating Alameda at the age of 25. His undergraduate degree was in physics. He wrote on Twitter in August 2020 that he’d had trouble in school and “spent most of my life learning to be ok-but-not-very-good” at online gaming. At FTX, he was well-known, in fact, for gaming during business meetings, including during a digital February 2022 appearance at the Economic Club of New York. His habit abetted his reputation as an oddball savant but should have been seen instead as a signpost of inattentiveness to fundamentals—an impactful shortcoming for someone forging a new path in an unregulated economic sector.

Bankman-Fried admitted in the same 2020 Twitter thread that a year after founding Alameda the company was beset by internal conflicts, producing “some really shitty times. A management dispute I didn’t know how to resolve boiled over and a bunch of employees left in early 2018.” One of those who left was Tara Mac Aulay, an Alameda co-founder who said in a November Tweet that the resignations were “in part due to concerns over risk management and business ethics.” In all, at least sixty-six FTX employees left the company before September 2022 and posted resumes on LinkedIn, creating a reservoir of information about the firm that potential investors could have exploited.

The staff that remained at FTX and Alameda after these departures was noticeably young and inexperienced. As an April 9 report to the bankruptcy court by FTX debtors noted, they had no previous exposure to “risk management or running a business, [yet] controlled nearly every significant aspect of the FTX Group.” The ambience was more like that of a college fraternity than a multi-billion-dollar business. Company expenses were approved by emojis in a Slack channel. FTX’s head of engineering, Nishad Singh, was a high school friend of Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, and Singh’s girlfriend was the FTX human resources chief; Singh took out a $543 million loan from Alameda, according to court filings. Singh has pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges.

In 2021, the first year that FTX pulled in more than $1 billion in revenue, FTX and Alameda co-founder Caroline Ellison, 28, tweeted that there is “nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is.” Alameda, which she ran, persistently lost money during its brief existence, accounting for its eventually fatal dependence on FTX bailouts. None of this should have been a surprise. “We tend not to have things like stop losses,” she said in a podcast in May 2022. Stop losses are tools to manage trading risk. In a private, internal communication, Bankman-Fried called Alameda “unauaditable” due to the absence of reliable transaction records, a circumstance he actually described as hilarious.

When speaking in a Jan. 2022 conversation with George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen published as a podcast two months later, Bankman-Fried also made clear that his personal tolerance for risk was extraordinarily high. But journalists as well as analysts ignored that flash of dangerous candor, and Sequoia Capital – a firm with $85 billion under management – in September published an article by a contract business writer that called Bankman-Fried “instantly lovable” and a “trader’s trader”; it also extolled his “daring feat of arbitrage” at the outset of his career and his accumulation of “more wealth in a shorter period of time than anyone else, ever.” Neither the author of that article nor the head of digital asset research at Forbes Magazine, which celebratorily featured Bankman-Fried on its Oct. 2021 cover, noted – as the debtors report eventually did – that the FTX head was functioning throughout this period in a vacuum of “independent or experienced finance, accounting, human resources, information security, or cybersecurity personnel or leadership.”

What besides radiant PR fumes gave FTX such impressive sales? It turns out that its marketing sometimes followed a notorious boiler-room model, a circumstance that escaped wide notice because no one appears to have talked to its customers. After the implosion, the New York Times revealed that when Bankman-Fried circulated specific investment opportunities to regular clients, he attached 24-hour deadlines to qualify for the best prices. As one investor told the newspaper, the terms of the offers seemed like “code for saying ‘no diligence.’”

No prescandal review appears to have rigorously compared Bankman-Fried’s public claims of personal privation and devotion to philanthropy with his actions. He told a reporter he planned to keep just 1% of his earnings. But the $190 million in total donations made by FTX’s charitable foundation through the end of 2022 were essentially a rounding error (seven tenths of one percent) for someone with a personal fortune—premeltdown—estimated at $26 billion to $32 billion. The gap was another sign that beneath Bankman-Fried’s claim to huge business acumen was a genuine talent for exaggerated self-promotion, a goal he has acknowledged in several postbankruptcy media interviews. A Feb. 8 court document filed in the Bahamas makes clear that FTX spent more on fancy properties and vehicles used by his employees—$257.4 million to be precise—than the FTX foundation funded by Bankman-Fried and his executives spent on philanthropy. Data of this kind is routinely recorded in retrievable public records.

Some of Bankman-Fried’s and FTX’s expenditures were not public, or reported, because his company, like Allen Stanford’s, chose to operate under much lighter disclosure rules than those governing firms in the United States or other industrialized countries. By itself, the offshoring of his work—first in Hong Kong and then in the Bahamas with retained Hong Kong connections—was a waving red flag, signaling that neither regulatory authorities nor the threat of public shame from adverse financial statements imposed real burdens on FTX for most of its existence. The absence of information, as any Sherlock Holmes devotee knows, can be significant. And at the FTX Group, there were, as the company’s bankruptcy trustee John J. Ray III has testified, virtually no “audited or reliable financial statements.”

Not everything alarming about the company was hidden; it was instead largely ignored. FTX’s U.S. branch had transparently bumpy relations with financial regulators, for example, including a clearcut conflict with the government about the company’s trust and credibility. Last August, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation publicly ordered FTX U.S. to cease claiming that its products or accounts were federally insured.

The company’s U.S. president Brett Harrison—whose statements were specifically cited by the FDIC complaint—said “we really didn’t mean to mislead anyone.” But the firm’s exaggerated claims could have been read as signposts of an unscrupulous corporate culture and a harbinger of shortfalls in its revenues and profits. In late September 2022, Harrison notably stepped down from his position as U.S. CEO position, claiming four months later that he did so because his “relationship with [SBF]… and his deputies had reached a point of total deterioration, after months of disputes over management practices at FTX.” He also called his former boss insecure, prideful, spiteful, and volatile. That level of dysfunction should certainly have been discoverable.

The FDIC’s letter, moreover, went to FTX’s president and its chief regulatory officer, Dan Friedberg, who had a noticeably blemished employment record. Friedberg had been a counsel to the online poker site UltimateBet in the mid-2000s as it attempted to cap payouts to customers cheated by the firm’s software. Although a recent version of his LinkedIn profile omitted mention of his work for the firm, that omission was itself another problematic signpost.

To recap, then, those bewitched by Bankman-Fried ignored or simply failed to search for evidence of his low qualifications, his team’s inexperience, the alarming qualities of its work habits, the large gaps between his promises and actions, the absence of any leavening executive influences or meaningful independent oversight, and a history of major clashes between Bankman-Fried and staff or regulators. All of this was discoverable before the bankruptcy.

Was FTX’s downfall predictable? You bet it was. And there’s plenty of reason to believe the next big downfall will also be predictable – so long as a careful search is made in advance for the right cues, and the results are heeded.

WASHINGTON, DC, April 13, 2023 (Newswire.com) – RosettiStarr—an international intelligence, investigations, and security services firm—today announced global security expert William “Bill” Halliday has joined the firm as Senior Director of Security Consulting.

Halliday comes to RosettiStarr after directing global security operations at Marsh McLennan, the world’s leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy, and people, with more than 85,000 employees advising clients in 130 countries.

RosettiStarr is experiencing rising demand for its security consulting practice worldwide. Halliday’s addition will add depth and knowledge to its existing suite of services, which include physical facilities protection, threat assessment, travel advisory, secure communications, and cyber security management, providing key clients an outsourced security alternative.

In Halliday’s 19 years at Marsh McLennan, he established and implemented worldwide programs to ensure security, safety, and employee health. He earlier worked for nine years as a Vice President for security programs and screening at Morgan Stanley and for five years providing security consulting services for clients at Kroll Associates.

RosettiStarr co-founder and CEO Richard Rosetti said on Halliday’s hiring, “We are delighted to welcome Bill Halliday, who is one of the most experienced and respected security professionals in our industry. Our clients will truly benefit from his advice, as he has helped build and manage two leading security departments. His extensive knowledge and experience will further help us meet our clients’ growing and shifting security needs.”

Halliday said, “I am thrilled to join the talented team at RosettiStarr, and I look forward to building on the firm’s excellent reputation. Over the course of my career, I have taken great pride in creating and delivering world-class security solutions. I am eager to bring my knowledge and skill to RosettiStarr’s clients. From supervising day-to-day security operations for clients to complete security overhauls, our team will be available to respond to a range of physical and technical security issues.”

Halliday graduated with honors from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and completed computer technology training at New York University.

About RosettiStarr

RosettiStarr provides intelligence, investigations, corporate risk and cyber security services to attorneys, management teams and investors worldwide. The firm regularly services corporate enterprises with global operations and major private equity firms and hedge funds with a combined $650 billion in assets under management. RosettiStarr has worked with over 60 of the AmLaw Top 100 Law Firms and has had successful engagements in 46 countries. For more information, visit www.rosettistarr.com.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RosettiStarr, a global intelligence, investigations, and security services firm, today announced it has added senior congressional investigator Douglas S. Pasternak to its staff.

Pasternak for 16 years has led and managed high-profile and complex investigations and oversight efforts for three separate committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Prior to joining Congress, he was an investigative reporter for nearly two decades at U.S. News & World Report magazine, where he was nominated for two National Magazine Awards, the magazine industry’s highest honor, and at NBC Nightly News, where he won numerous investigative honors, including two Emmy Awards for investigations in the business and financial reporting category.

Pasternak will join the RosettiStarr team as Senior Director of Investigations.

Michael Starr, RosettiStarr’s Chief Operating Officer, said on Pasternak’s hiring, “Our team just got a lot stronger with the addition of Doug Pasternak, a seasoned veteran in the world of investigations. Doug brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to RosettiStarr, making us even better equipped to tackle complex investigations while also helping our clients navigate the congressional investigative process.”

“I have always built my investigations on a pillar of solid facts that lead to careful and complete analysis and clear and concise investigative findings,” said Pasternak. “I look forward to applying the same skills I’ve used on Capitol Hill and as a journalist to help RosettiStarr’s clients resolve issues of concern, including problems that affect their reputation and bottom line.”

Most recently, Pasternak was Staff Director of the U.S. Senate’s preeminent oversight subcommittee, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), part of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. There he oversaw bipartisan investigations into contractor mismanagement of military housing, immigration detention and medical service problems, and criminal justice issues.

Prior to serving as Staff Director at PSI, he was Director of Investigations & Oversight for the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, where he led the premiere 18-month congressional probe into problems with the design, development, and certification of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft that resulted 346 deaths after two crashes. His probe included a review of more than 600,000 pages of records and dozens of critical interviews, which led to bipartisan aviation safety reform legislation signed into law in December 2020.

Pasternak began work on Capitol Hill in 2006, becoming Staff Director and Chief Investigator of the House Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations & Oversight. The committee has broad oversight jurisdiction over all non-Department of Defense federally funded research and development efforts across the entire U.S. government. There he led and managed dozens of investigations regarding science, technology, cybersecurity, homeland security, environmental public health, and other issues. He also conducted oversight of the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Homeland Security, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and other federal agencies.

Prior to joining Congress, Pasternak spent nearly two decades as an investigative reporter and investigative producer, primarily focused on national security issues, at U.S. News & World Report magazine and NBC Nightly News, where he conducted hidden camera and other investigations. His reporting and investigations exposed issues of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at multiple federal agencies, and has led to investigations by Congress and the Offices of Inspector General at the Department of Defense and Department of Justice.

Pasternak has a B.A. in political science from American University. He has taken graduate National Security Studies classes at the University of Maryland at College Park and studied in Israel and Poland. Over the years, he has lectured on congressional oversight and investigative journalism to hundreds of university students, journalists, government officials and congressional colleagues. He has also been a guest on multiple news shows and radio programs discussing his investigations, including on CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, NPR, and FOX News and documentaries on the Discovery Channel and PBS’s FRONTLINE.

About RosettiStarr

RosettiStarr provides intelligence, investigations, corporate risk and cyber security services to attorneys, management teams and investors worldwide. The firm regularly services corporate enterprises with global operations and major private equity firms and hedge funds with a combined $650 billion in assets under management. RosettiStarr has worked with over 60 of the AmLaw Top 100 Law Firms and has had successful engagements in over 50 countries. For more information, visit www.rosettistarr.com.

Telephone: +1 (301) 299-1931

www.rosettistarr.com

WASHINGTON, Oct. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RosettiStarr—an international intelligence, investigations, and security services firm—today announced the expansion of its human source intelligence practice to meet its clients’ growing need for more comprehensive, insightful information and analysis to better inform their decision making.

“Finding and conducting interviews with well-placed sources has always been a critical component to the success of our investigations, whether it’s for transactional diligence, business intelligence, crisis management, or litigation purposes,” said Michael Starr, co-founder and COO of the firm. “As part of our continued growth and commitment to exceptional service, we are excited to announce that Managing Directors Jeff Smith and Joe Andrews will co-lead this effort.”

“Combining Jeff’s experience as a veteran Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist—deeply probing institutional and corporate malfeasance and personal misconduct—with Joe’s extensive background in the intelligence field, working for both government and private industry, gives RosettiStarr a distinct advantage as we continue to grow our firm,” Starr said.

Smith is an expert in fraud and corruption investigations. He spent more than two decades at the Washington Post, including as the national investigative editor, a foreign correspondent, and a national security correspondent. More recently, he served for 10 years as the managing editor for national security at the Center for Public Integrity.

Andrews brings a wealth of experience in global investigations, national security, and strategic advisory work, including as a senior officer in the Intelligence Community. He has advised C-suite executives and heads of state, and his overseas assignments and client engagements have spanned countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

“Our expanded team is well-positioned to deliver the human element—the firsthand observations and recollections from the people most familiar with the matter at hand,” said Smith. “We’ve got long experience at finding the right people, extracting what we need to learn, and confirming everything we’ve heard. All the successful investigations I’ve overseen have depended on getting information that others missed or couldn’t reach. These are challenges our team knows how to overcome.”

“Deep public records research and interviews with primary sources are a powerful combination,” said Andrews. “Human intelligence allows us to fill information gaps and answer tough questions. It is also vital to our diligence services when assessing the strengths and weaknesses of an investment target or management team, the reputational risks of a business partner, or the past performance of a C-suite candidate.”

The team includes experienced investigators, journalists, former intelligence professionals, financial specialists, attorneys, and other experts. RosettiStarr interviews can help explain past and future complex events, identify potential threats, and provide key context and details.

Each engagement is customized and flexible to deliver discretely the most relevant and actionable information, for the boardroom, the courtroom, or the deal team.

Already, RosettiStarr has conducted thousands of interviews and reputational inquiries with executives, employees, analysts, subject matter experts, regulators, government officials, and other sources—in more than 15 languages across more than 45 countries. These efforts have been undertaken on behalf of institutional investors with over $650 billion in global AUM, more than 60 of the AmLaw Top 100 law firms, and in support of corporations, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.

To learn more about RosettiStarr’s offerings, visit us at www.rosettistarr.com.

About RosettiStarr

RosettiStarr provides cutting-edge intelligence, investigations, corporate risk and cyber security services to management teams, attorneys, and investors worldwide. The firm provides strategic intelligence, due diligence, and risk management support, which gives clients the confidence to make more informed decisions and take bold actions. RosettiStarr operates on the principles of trust, discretion, and personalized client service.

Industry innovators join forces to deliver unparalleled comprehensive cyber protection

OTTAWA, ON, July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ – Field Effect, a global cyber security company specializing in intelligence-grade protection for small and medium organizations, today announced a strategic partnership with RosettiStarr, an international intelligence, investigations, and security services company. This partnership delivers best-in-class cyber security services, providing RosettiStarr customers with advanced protection against cyber threats across the globe.

“Cyber security risks are embedded in everything we do online, and it is imperative that businesses enhance their security postures to meet the dynamic threat cyber criminals pose to critical systems and sensitive data,” said Kip Edwards, Managing Director and General Counsel of RosettiStarr. “By combining Field Effect’s deep technical proficiency with RosettiStarr’s expertise in investigations, intelligence, and security, we can now deliver full-spectrum incident response services to businesses and law firms managing breaches along with a best-in-class security solution enabling our clients to monitor their threat surface and prevent attacks in the first place.”

RosettiStarr will leverage a security solution called Covalence, Field Effect’s managed detection and response solution (MDR). Covalence is the only such tool built and designed from the ground up that makes it easy for small and medium businesses to get comprehensive, sophisticated protection from a single platform. Its unique strength is that it sees into every aspect of a business’ threat surface and aggregates the data from multiple security events into simple, actionable steps, making it fast and easy to prevent and resolve threats. RosettiStarr has worked with Field Effect to develop a first of its kind instance of this powerful application designed to help institutional investors implement a cyber security standard across their portfolio investments while also giving them real-time situational awareness into their holdings’ threat surfaces.

“We built Covalence to ensure organizations of all sizes have access to powerful cyber security protection,” said Shri Kalyanasundaram, Chief Growth Officer at Field Effect. “By joining forces with RosettiStarr, which is known for its world-class intelligence and security solutions, we’ve created a comprehensive suite of security services that will help protect their customers at the time they need it most.”

RosettiStarr will also work with Field Effect to help clients respond to cyber incidents worldwide and is now offering a comprehensive pre-transactional cyber maturity assessment for clients’ prospective investments. The partnership between Field Effect and RosettiStarr reflects their ongoing commitment to strengthening the cyber resilience of people and organizations around the world.

To learn more about RosettiStarr and Field Effect offerings, visit: RosettiStarr.com/practices.

Field Effect believes organizations of all sizes deserve powerful cyber security solutions to protect them. The company’s threat detection, monitoring, training and compliance products and services are the results of years of research and development by the brightest talents in the cyber security industry. For more information, visit fieldeffect.com.

RosettiStarr provides cutting-edge intelligence, investigations, corporate risk and cyber security services to management teams, attorneys, and investors worldwide. RosettiStarr services institutional investors with over $550 billion under management and corporate enterprises with operations around the world. RosettiStarr has worked with over 60 of the AmLaw Top 100 Law Firms and has had successful engagements in 46 countries. The company provides strategic intelligence, due diligence, and risk management support which gives portfolio managers, attorneys, and corporate executive teams confidence to make more informed decisions and take bold actions.

SOURCE Field Effect

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RosettiStarr, a leading intelligence and investigations firm based in Washington, D.C., today announced it has added Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist R. Jeffrey Smith as a managing director. He will help lead strategic engagements for the firm’s clients around the world.

An expert in fraud and corruption investigations, Smith spent more than two decades at the Washington Post where he was national investigative editor, national security correspondent, national investigative correspondent and the newspaper’s bureau chief in Rome. He most recently served as the managing editor for national security at the highly regarded Center for Public Integrity, one of the country’s oldest non-profit, nonpartisan investigative news organizations.

Smith won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and was twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist with others at the Post. He also is a National Headliner Award winner, a recipient of Associated Press Media Editors Awards for Investigative Reporting and Public Service, an EPPY Award winner, a Seldon Ring Award winner for Investigative Reporting and winner of the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting, as well as a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Smith holds a B.A. in political science and public policy from Duke University and a M.S. from the Columbia School of Journalism. A veteran global investigator with contacts around the world, he has overseen or conducted investigations in more than 50 countries. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been a fellow multiple times at Stanford University, and at New York University, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and the East-West Center in Hawaii.

“Jeff Smith is one of the most talented, well-respected investigative journalists in Washington and an expert in fraud and corruption investigations,” said RosettiStarr President and CEO Richard Rosetti.  “We are thrilled to welcome him to our firm.”

“I am excited to be joining RosettiStarr, where I will be surrounded by many smart and talented individuals who care deeply about, and actually celebrate, the discovery of factual information in the world of commerce, policy, and politics, and who also understand the power of such discoveries,” said Smith. “The firm excels at uncovering what its clients need to know to produce great outcomes.”

“Jeff Smith’s breadth of experience, global contacts, and aptitude for distilling noise into meaningful insights adds a new dimension to our team,” said RosettiStarr Chief Operating Officer Michael Starr. “His arrival will propel us into 2022 with a sharp focus on what matters—delivering impactful intelligence to our clients.”

About RosettiStarr

RosettiStarr provides intelligence, investigations, corporate risk and cyber security services to attorneys, management teams and investors worldwide. The firm regularly services corporate enterprises with global operations and major private equity firms and hedge funds with a combined $650 billion in assets under management. RosettiStarr has worked with over 60 of the AmLaw Top 100 Law Firms and has had successful engagements in 46 countries. For more information, visit www.rosettistarr.com.