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Media verified Verified Outcome TRL 9

Graph Database for Investigative Journalism

domain Client: A global consortium of investigative journalists handshake Provider: Neo4j schedule Deploy: Q2 2016 (Release)
96 Impact
Enterprise Ready
Evidence Score: 5/10
Strength: Very High

Executive Summary

ANALYST: COI RESEARCH

To analyze the 'Panama Papers' (2.6TB of leaked legal documents), the consortium utilized a graph database. Unlike traditional SQL databases, the graph model natively mapped relationships between entities (Person A -> Director of -> Company B -> Account at -> Bank C), allowing journalists to uncover hidden networks of offshore tax avoidance.

rate_review Analyst Verdict

"The definitive case study for graph databases in forensics. It demonstrates that for complex, highly connected datasets, relational databases (SQL) are insufficient. The technology enabled a decentralized team of 370 journalists to collaborate on a single data structure."

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Full Audit Report Available Includes Risk Register, Technical Specs & Compliance Data.

warning The Challenge

The leak contained 11.5 million unstructured documents (PDFs, emails, images). Standard keyword search could find names, but could not easily trace the complex, multi-layered ownership structures used to hide assets. Manual mapping of these connections would have taken decades.

psychology The Solution

The data was processed via OCR and Tesseract, then metadata was ingested into Neo4j. This allowed the data to be queried as a network. A visualization tool (Linkurious) was layered on top, allowing non-technical journalists to visually 'pull on a thread' and see connected entities.

settings_suggest Technical & Deployment Specs

Integrations
Linkurious, Tesseract OCR
Deployment Model
On-Premise / Private Cloud
Data Classification
Leaked / Restricted
Estimated TCO / ROI
Low (Software grant)
POC Summary (2015-01-01 to 2015-06-01)

"Initial testing on 'Swiss Leaks' data."

shield Risk Register & Mitigation

Risk Factor Severity Mitigation Strategy
Data Security Critical Air-gapped servers for initial processing; encrypted communications.
False Positives High Strict editorial verification of graph connections before publication.

trending_up Impact Trajectory

Audited value realization curve

Processing of 11.5 million leaked files Verified Outcome
Primary KPIMapping of >200,000 offshore entities
Audit CycleGlobal recovery of >$1.3 billion in tax revenue

policy Compliance & Gov

  • Standards: Whistleblower Protection
  • Maturity (TRL): 9
  • Evidence Score: 5/10
  • Data Class: Leaked / Restricted

folder_shared Verified Assets

description
Verified Case Study
PDF • Version 1
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Technical Audit
PDF • Audited
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Security Architecture

The "Blind Verification" Protocol

How we verified these outcomes for A global consortium of investigative journalists without exposing sensitive IP or identities.

Private
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1. Raw Evidence

Audit ID: #PRIV-768
Evidence: Direct SQL Logs
Public
public

2. Verified Asset

Outcome: Verified
Ref ID: #COI-768

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