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Insights into our methods and our mindset. Or just what we find interesting.

April 7, 2025

National Library Week 2025

In case it wasn’t on your calendar, this week is one of 221B’s favorite weeks of the year—National Library Week! Libraries hold a myriad of records, ranging from old newspaper articles to environmental maps to…

January 28, 2025

From Exposure to Action: Strengthening Executive Security in a Digital Age

It’s 2025, and we here at 221B believe there is no better way to kick off the New Year (and celebrate Data Privacy Day!) than with a critical look at one’s online exposure. Now more than ever, executives,…

October 31, 2024

The Uniform Commercial Code Filing: Finding Investigative Pearls

As investigators probing the backgrounds and interests of individuals and companies in the context of due diligence, litigation consulting or asset searches, one of our principal remits is to understand and…

October 3, 2024

Swiping Left on Romance Scams

In the world of online dating and social media, romance scams have become alarmingly common. These skilled scammers are professionals at emotional exploitation. They manipulate their victims into sharing…

September 30, 2024

Searching Press? Why Databases May Not be Enough

It’s often said that journalism is the first rough draft of history. Unfortunately, like most rough drafts, press reports aren’t always perfect and can contain incomplete information or outright errors.…

August 1, 2024

Take a Dip in the Internet’s Hot Tub Time Machine

On this World Wide Web Day, we highlight an important (and free) resource to use during an investigation - the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, a searchable repository of archived webpages dating to the…

July 29, 2024

App-solute Insight: Harnessing Everyday Apps for Open Source Intelligence

We investigators and security professionals are often tasked with finding the who, what, when, where and why when it comes to persons of interest. Whether it’s a subject under surveillance, subject of an asset…

June 28, 2024

It’s World Social Media Day! How Are You Celebrating?

In honor of World Social Media Day on June 30, I’m dedicating this blog to one of the most useful tools we investigators have in our toolbox—a subject’s public social media profiles. Let’s face it: social…

June 18, 2024

Ain’t Nothing like the Real Thing: Why There’s No Substitute for Primary Sources

As investigators, we often use commercial public record databases as a jumping-off tool when conducting investigations. Their vast reserves of data can help us start to connect the dots efficiently and see…

May 1, 2024

'Morgenthau' Author Andrew Meier to Speak at Union League Event April 25

The evening, moderated by Bethany McLean, will include a discussion with Meier on current events in the U.S. and Russia as well as his most recent work, Morgenthau: Power, Privilege and the Rise of an American…

April 2, 2024

For Facts’ Sake: Navigating the Murky World of Online Misinformation

The Internet is awash in misinformation but it also happens to be the greatest fact-checking tool in history – if you know how to use it properly. When it comes to fact-checking information found online my…

March 14, 2024

Using FOIAs to Unlock Hidden Information

From uncovering a public university’s report outlining allegations of sexual abuse, to obtaining government emails describing safety concerns at a location of interest, public records laws have allowed my…

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