The Asian Bankers Association and Sqope S.A. successfully conducted a webinar on “WEBINT for KYC” on November 26, 2020 at 3:00 PM, Taipei time.  It was the first collaboration between the two organizations in providing training on a topic of current interest to ABA members and other bankers and industry practitioners.

The webinar was moderated by Mr. Leron Vulfson, Head of Asia Desk and Relationship Manager in Asia at Sqope. The main speaker was Mr. Lev Yuriditsky, Head of Intelligence at Sqope S.A who has 10 years of experience on the intelligence field, building and managing global research teams in the fields of geopolitics and terror monitoring.

As a background, the finance sector has been facing numerous scandals since the early 2000s, mostly deriving from the rapid change of technology and the exponential growth of the Internet and the data available in it. These changes, along with a global shift of financial regulations regarding KYC and AM/CFT procedures, had revised the way financial institutes have to act and react, adapting to the new standards of compliance within the industry.

Mr. Yuriditsky outlined major challenges and shared with participants his guidance on how to better use different layers of the Internet and free tools, as well as how to structure your investigation, as part of KYC/Onboarding of HNWI. He explained how WEBINT (Web Intelligence) can be applied daily to enable executives take bold decisions while actively contributing to global compliance efforts.

His presentation covered the following topics:

• Introduction to WEBINT and its roots
• Internet and intelligence, what insights can they offer?
• Exploring ‘real data’ and ‘fake news’- identifying KYC risks
• Do It Yourself- AML/CFT/Due Diligence ‘tool-kit’ for executives

In particular, Mr.  Yuriditsky touched on the following specific issues:

1. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and WEBINT: What is it, and why is it important?
2. How Changes in Society and The Internet Led To An Increased Need For WEBINT
3. New Forms of Intelligence: What Insight do they Offer?
4. WEBINT and OSINT Search Techniques
5. How to use Search Engines Effectively and Exploring their Advanced Features
6. How to Identify Bias and Inaccuracies in Search Results
   – Social Media for KYC
   – Fake News / Fake Websites and How to Identify Them
7. Distinguishing between Biased Sources and Fake Information

• How to Put the Search Results in Context
• Surface Web vs. Deep Web vs. Dark Web
• How to use the Deep Web for your KYC

In concluding his presentation, Mr. Yuriditsky pointed out the following take-aways:

• Challenge everything you read; don’t trust what you see
• A strong open source investigation methodology can bring value and results to your KYC
• Working from home makes WEBINT techniques even more critical for your KYC practices.

Sqope S.A. is a global provider of high-quality intelligence reports on individuals and corporate entities, tailored to the needs of the financial sector. It maintains offices in Luxembourg (HQ) and Geneva, as well as a network across Asia, the CIS and the Middle East. Sqope offers a full range of solutions that enable you to take bolder decisions and identify new customers, partners or sectors, in a manner that is fully compliant with the rules and regulations (KYC/AML) that govern the financial industry.