The Risk-Reducing Power of Flashpoint Video Search

Video as Essential Threat Intelligence

When advertising and selling their services, or boasting about their exploits, threat actors will often post media, including video, to illicit communities that serve as proof points for potential buyers and partners.

They showcase sensitive information and stolen goods, including: stolen identities, compromised bank accounts, checks, and stolen credit cards; gift cards and receipts; fake, unlicensed merchandise; ATM skimmers and shimmers, guns and drugs, exploit code, RDP access, brand impersonation, physical security threats, and much more.

Now, video use amongst threat actors is on the rise, as media-rich, mobile-first communication is becoming a primary mode of communication in illicit communities. Gaining visibility into this threat landscape is essential intelligence to CTI, Fraud, Brand Protection, and Physical Security teams, among other practitioners whose job it is to protect against exposure to fraud, corporate brand abuse, and acts of violence: 

Even better is having a way to search this media across text, images, and video in order to identify potential threats. Flashpoint offers all three—and our new video search analysis is a unique offering on the market.

What is Flashpoint Video Search Technology?

Building on the success of our OCR capability for images, security teams can now surface threats in videos posted by threat actors using object detection, logo detection, text extraction, and explicit content detection directly within the Flashpoint Intelligence Platform.

Security teams across various industries in public and private sectors have realized the value of searching for, and being alerted on, images of company assets that pop up on open-source and darknet communities. Flashpoint’s video search analysis expands the scope of coverage, offering additional insights into a fast-growing medium used by threat actors.

What Can It Identify?

Video search analysis gives teams the ability to search for and generate keyword specific alerts for text, logos, and organizational assets inside videos across Flashpoint intelligence collections. Flashpoint’s new video search analysis helps to identify: 

• Labels and objects, including products, locations, activities, and animal species
• Logos, including a library of more than 100,000 brand-specific media
• Text, including the detection and extraction of text within an input video using OCR
• Explicit content, including adult content in videos, which is generally defined as inappropriate for people under the age of 18

What Can Flashpoint Video Search Identify?

Video search analysis equips security teams with the additional tools and intelligence they need in their missions of preventing fraud and protecting their organization.

Financial Fraud

Search for a bank or institution name to discover videos with that particular logo or text in them. Locate a threat actor boasting about ATM access, logos or text on a check or receipts, or of a physical brick and mortar building. Video search analysis can be used to uncover instances of threat actors engaging in using ATMs to extract cash, duplicating false checks, credit card fraud, and POS skimmers. 

Additionally, Flashpoint financial services customers have found countless instances of potentially fraudulent accounts, checks, and cards using image OCR—and our new video search analysis functionality will only enhance and increase the ability to prevent financial fraud. One Flashpoint financial services customer detected more than $4M in illicitly marketed assets, including checks and compromised accounts, using our OCR capabilities.

Physical Security 

Enhance executive protection by monitoring for specific personally identifiable information (PII) related to employees, executives, and organizations. With this, physical security teams can work to prevent acts of violence and crimes or threats at points of interest, events, or physical locations. 

Brand Protection

Monitor for an organization’s brand in videos shared by illicit actors, including the ability to identify insider threats via videos of compromised web servers, compromised customer accounts, and stolen merchandise. 

Access Flashpoint Video Search Today

Learn more about how Flashpoint’s industry-first video search technology can help your teams surface logos, text, explicit content, and other critical intelligence.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Flashpoint Video Search and how does it help investigators?

Flashpoint Video Search is an industry-first technology within the Flashpoint Intelligence Platform that allows users to search for specific objects, text, and logos inside video files. It helps investigators by surfacing critical intelligence from videos posted in illicit communities, such as threat actors boasting about stolen bank accounts, showing off illegal weapons, or demonstrating how to use POS skimmers.

Flashpoint Video Search Capability	Investigative Benefit
Logo Detection	Identifies a library of 100,000+ brand logos inside video frames.
Text Extraction (OCR)	Reads and pulls text, such as names on checks or credit cards, from video.
Object Labeling	Detects physical items like ATM skimmers, guns, or specific products.

How does Flashpoint Video Search assist in preventing financial fraud?

Flashpoint Video Search assists in preventing financial fraud by allowing banks and institutions to scan for their brand names and assets in videos shared on the dark web. Fraud teams can use Flashpoint to find threat actors showcasing “proof” of their exploits, such as videos of cash being extracted from compromised ATMs or close-ups of stolen checks and credit cards, enabling the bank to cancel those assets immediately.

• Asset Recovery: Surfaces compromised accounts and cards before they can be fully exploited.
• Skimmer Detection: Identifies videos showing the installation or use of physical POS skimmers.
• Risk Mitigation: Helps organizations detect and prevent millions of dollars in potential losses.

Why is Flashpoint Video Search unique for brand and physical protection?

Flashpoint Video Search is unique for brand and physical protection because it provides visibility into a fast-growing medium that traditional text-based search tools miss. Physical security teams can use Flashpoint to detect threats against executives or facilities by monitoring for specific faces or locations in videos. Brand protection teams can identify insider threats by finding videos of stolen merchandise or compromised corporate servers that are being marketed for sale.

Protection Type	Flashpoint Application
Brand Protection	Finds videos of counterfeit products or brand impersonation attempts.
Executive Protection	Monitors for leaked PII or visual threats against high-profile personnel.
Physical Security	Identifies threats at specific physical locations, events, or points of interest.