From Agent Nakamura:

MALTEGO is an excellent #OSINT and #SOCMINT tool for visualizing data collected and noting the linkages to the Person of Interest (POI) or Organization of Interest (OOI). The old “evidence” boards with the pins and yarn have had an upgrade in the last few years, and MALTEGO is a flexible upgrade most Private Detective/Investigative firms should at least look into.

DOWNSIDE: A bit difficult to purchase (confusing interface and a yearly upfront cost), so make sure if you have a small agency that it is what you need vs. do it yourself link analysis.

UPSIDE: BUT, if you like the ability to use multiple database sources and have the links automatically populate, AND can sift through the large amounts of data and reduce/eliminate the links that are false positives, MALTEGO will set your #PI firm ahead of the game.

They also have a lot of online and some in-person training seminars. In addition, the nifty handbook like the one below helps to compare their recommended workflow on investigations with your firms or individual workflow so you can adjust as needed. Great tips!

One more downside, but it might not affect Private Investigators that only deal in English.

It also can’t enter Japanese characters from what I have seen.

Almost all of my investigations in OSINT and SOCMINT have some need to enter at least a name in Japanese Kanji or sometimes Hiragana or Katakana. If they can add foreign databases on social media to enter different languages easily, then the product will be even stronger.

From Al: Full disclosure, we don’t have any agreement to promote Maltego, nor any connection with their developers or management. The above was her observations on the product and wanting to share it with the PI community.