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The owner of one of the largest banks in Western Europe contacted our firm after being slapped with a massive, well-planned, slanderous campaign, executed by an unknown source, all aimed at harming his – and his bank’s – reputation.
The efforts included successfully stealing confidential information from the owner’s bank, publishing negative stories in the media about him and his family, as well as filing of many false claims and complaints against him across the country.
So, What Did We Do?
Our firm conducted a comprehensive analysis of the slanderous campaign happenings and managed to identify the parties whom may have had an interest in harming our client.
By cross-checking the intelligence collected, we were able to assess with high probability who was the sponsor of the campaign.
Simultaneously, we looked into the information leaks from our client’s bank using complex cyber capabilities and an international human intelligence operation.
This enabled us to successfully identify the source of the leak: one of the bank’s suppliers who had access to internal information through the bank’s computer systems.
Finally, using open sources (publicly available sources), human intelligence and our deep web technology practices, we managed to link the provider ordering the leak from the bank to the person found to be behind the campaign against our client: the owner of a competing bank.
What Was the Competitor’s Incentive?
We found that the competitor’s actions against our client was an effort to divert authorities’ attention away from his own bank which was being investigated in relation to money laundering and tax evasion.
It was of course also an attempt to harm the reputation of our client’s bank for the sole purpose of convincing customers to switch banks.
Restoring Trust
The evidence we provided cleared our client’s name and provided grounds to open an investigation against the competitor – all in the nick of time before any active involvement of the authorities took place.
This was accompanied by the removal of all negative stories published in the media and the launch of a positive campaign to strengthen our client’s public persona and bank.
Lesson Learned
If you encounter false information being published about you or have been slapped with a slanderous campaign, act quickly to contain the situation before it spirals out of control.
Defining the scope, limiting exposure to negative content and revealing the source behind the slander while strengthening your online presence before, during and after a crisis will help keep your reputation and company immune to future threats.
We aid our clients to professionally respond to negative media stories before the situation gets out of hand with our Crisis Management & Reputation Recovery solutions.
If you are interested in services such as these to keep your mind at ease, peruse our Cyber Intelligence services or simply contact us for a consultation.
