🕵️ DETECTIVES and CYBERSECURITY 🤔 HOW DOES A PRIVATE DETECTIVE WORK?

From Dick Tracy to Pikachu, by way of Le Carré or Detective Conan, we all have an idea of the private detective, and it’s almost always wrong. The trench coat, the hat and the client with endless legs sell well, but they bear little resemblance to the real job.

To take it apart I’m joined by Rafael Guerrero, a real detective who also writes novels and essays to dust off the profession. He explains that in Spain private investigation is regulated by law, that you have to study for three years at university, and that detectives act as witnesses, not as expert witnesses: they gather information backed by a legitimate interest and set it down in a report. That’s where those of us in cybersecurity come in, mainly to anonymise, create cover identities or track in open sources, because he, at fifty-two, admits he isn’t a digital native. We talk about romance scams, forensic reports and why a good detective is expensive, but a bad one costs you far more.

He leaves us with anecdotes that hook you, like the one about the deceased man with two families or the widow who hired us to find her husband’s first girlfriend and give her a share of the inheritance. Rafael writes because reading, he says, even makes you happier.