I just thought I’d share some thoughts, 3 months after Neotas was born. For those of you that don’t know us, we are a next-generation due diligence company. We have brought together a collection of ex-military and law enforcement intelligence specialists along with technology and finance experts to create an analyst driven platform that uses OSINT to conduct due diligence.
The whole exercise has really opened my eyes to how open-source intelligence can help across a wide number of areas, from employee and client onboarding, ‘fit and proper’ tests under SMR, KYC/AML reviews, supply chain audits to human vulnerability assessments as part of your cybersecurity strategy.
Every day the information we uncover never fails to amaze me. Knowing your people is more important than ever, it’s important to understand these risks so you can make better decisions.
51% of the people we vetted, that had already gone through standard background checking had additional flags raised against them. These included undisclosed directorships, second jobs, gambling addictions, drug habits, religious extremism, IP theft. We even found a video of a candidate assaulting a police officer that he stupidly posted online, and no, I’m not making that one up! And these were people looking at jobs in financial institutions……
51% seems a ridiculous statistic and right now as we just get going, it only covers 100’s rather than 1000’s of people but we still feel it’s a broad enough selection to get a sense of the scale of the problem.
As we go on, I’ll think about the stories I can share, I already feel I have enough material to write a book! Right now current screening and vetting processes are no longer fit for purpose. You need to think about how you can use the information that now exists about people and companies to make more informed decisions. directly.
In the meantime. if you would like to know more, please feel free to contact the team directly on our contact page.
