Summary of the Digital Investigation Seminar hosted by the Ministério Público de Santa Catarina

In late April, we joined more than 1,200 local investigators and law enforcement agents in Brazil for an in-person and virtual discussion on how to work effectively with private sector companies when conducting investigations. Alongside our team, were partners from Binance, Bumble Inc., Discord, Google, Grupo OLX, Match Group, Mercado Livre Brasil, and Microsoft.  

Brazil is a large country with multiple police agencies facing a multitude of different types of crime including homicide, school shootings, cryptocurrency crimes, domestic violence, organized crime, and terrorism. Local law enforcement knows that to keep their communities safe, they need a safe, secure, and efficient line of communication with tech platforms. Concerns discussed at this event emphasized the importance of legal, prompt, and efficient digital evidence acquisition. Increased complexity for companies and law enforcement committed to public safety in Brazil underscores many of these concerns. 

Private Sector Concerns

Throughout my career, I’ve seen a growing desire from companies to engage and support law enforcement investigations, especially to improve public safety.  Today, many companies have dedicated Trust and Safety, and Law Enforcement Operations teams actively engaged in protecting platform safety and user privacy. 

However, companies are rightfully worried about ensuring that only verified and legitimate investigators can obtain information through legal processes. Instances of law enforcement data breaches and compromised networks globally, including in South America, have heightened companies’ vigilance to prevent unauthorized data requests. Kodex recently published an in-depth white paper on the risks of fraudulent emergency data requests (EDRs) with a case study on how we recently detected a compromised law enforcement email domain and blocked fraudulent requests from reaching customers on our platform. 

Our modus operandi is not to trust someone simply because they have access to a law enforcement email address since email compromises are a known threat. That’s why we simultaneously run global signals intelligence and account heuristics, monitoring for suspicious activity to flag abnormal behavior for all our customers. 

Maintaining public trust and proving compliance with privacy and data protection laws is also important to these companies. Kodex gives them the ability to audit activity on every law enforcement request and create public-facing transparency reports in minutes. 

Key Needs of Law Enforcement

On the law enforcement side, investigators and agents have also grown in their desire and ability to work with companies on legal investigations. Historically, police were shocked when a company reached out proactively to engage in shared public safety concerns. It often felt like pulling teeth to confirm and organize productive discussions between law enforcement and private companies because there was so much suspicion on both sides. Today, law enforcement understands that they need to follow legal process and submit appropriately scoped requests to the appropriate companies. Learning how to do that takes time and access to the necessary guidelines from each company.  

Nearly every modern crime involves some kind of digital evidence, and it’s often very time-consuming for authorities to access that data. Some friction is necessary, including legal process to ensure the requests are lawful. Yet, once legal requirements are met, a slow and inefficient process makes it difficult for law enforcement to protect vulnerable individuals. For example, a single investigation may require law enforcement to engage with numerous companies that may or may not publicize contact information or guidelines for how they can receive law enforcement requests. This often leaves investigators to make an educated guess about how to engage with the right contact at each company, which not only wastes time but risks exposing sensitive details about an active investigation to the wrong person.   

Once verified on Kodex, investigators can easily engage with our customers in one place. This helps them investigate crime more efficiently. Kodex also makes it easy for law enforcement to contact the appropriate team at any company on our platform with the necessary information to process a legal request with complete documentation to maintain and prove the chain of custody. 

I joined Kodex because I’m passionate about preventing real-world harm and protecting user privacy. At the event in Brazil, it was impossible to ignore the importance of what Kodex does to improve trust and peace of mind throughout the entire process. Companies and law enforcement are eager for a safer, more secure, and more efficient way to work together.