About Us
With comprehensive expertise, we tackle critical challenges head-on. Our solutions empower businesses to make informed, confident decisions. Trust us to drive your success through innovative strategies and data-driven insights.
Transforming Complex Data into
Powerful Insights That Drive
Action, Empower Decisions, and
Safeguard Your Future.
1994 – Early PI Work & OSINT Awakening
- • At 22, Petrie began his career as a private investigator, relying on traditional surveillance techniques—stakeouts, tailing suspects, and field investigations
- • Unlike the old-school PIs, he explored early internet tools: Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), Usenet threads, and rudimentary search engines
- • Key Case: A claimant feigning a debilitating back injury was exposed through a staged karate class, captured via a hidden VHS camcorder
- • Insight Gained: The internet and emerging OSINT techniques could transform investigations, amplifying reach and efficiency
2007 – Digital Prowess & Early Social Media OSINT
- • As internet capabilities expanded, Petrie refined his digital investigative skills, integrating online research into traditional PI work
- • Key Case: Tracked a missing teen within 17 minutes by analyzing MySpace profiles, comment threads, and tagged photos—demonstrating the power of early social media OSINT
- • Impact: The teen was found safe; years later, he is a family man, a testament to the power of digital investigations
- • Innovation: Launched his first social media investigative platform, integrating web crawling, metadata scraping, and human analysis
2014 – Founding Social Detection & OSINT Evolution
- • Advances in machine learning, APIs, and geolocation data fueled the expansion of Petrie’s investigative technology
- • Breakthrough: Social Detection leveraged natural language processing, cloud computing, and evolving OSINT frameworks to revolutionize digital investigations
- • Legacy: What began with a camcorder and dial-up modem transformed into a sophisticated OSINT-driven investigative platform, reshaping the field with each new technological leap
Why Cyphr?
Unlocking the Power of Intelligence Through Technology and Strategy
Ciphers: The Art of Encryption
As a base literal meaning, a cipher (or cypher) is an approach (often an algorithm) for encrypting or decrypting something through a series of specific sequences.
The Role of Ciphers in Security
In the realm of secret communication and information security, the use of ciphers played a crucial role throughout history. These cryptographic techniques were (and still are) employed to conceal the meaning of messages, protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access help to serve the purpose of obscuring communication.
Ciphers Shaping Communication
Cyphers were at the core of many unique means to facilitate communications, and enable transformative progress, communicate in sophisticated yet private means – and shaped the historical landscape, industrial nations and powerbases of economies, armies, governments and more.
Cryptography: Securing Data Transmission
Cryptography is a fundamental building block of information transmission in a secure, codified manner with an intent to deceive, or conceal – a fundamental ground for competition, security, privacy and understanding information risk management.
Cyphr’s Expertise in Intelligence
Cyphr understands the psychology, technology, methodology and strategy to ‘find what was not meant to be found’ and ‘solve what may not be self-evident to the eye’ and the strategy to find truth in the informational chaos
The Team
Investigative | Intelligence | Transformed
Michael Petrie - Founder/CEO
Michael’s curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit led him to pioneer Cyphr, combining traditional investigative methods with advanced digital intelligence. With a knack for navigating complex data—both digital and non-digital—he focuses on addressing risks, protecting brands, and benefiting individuals and employers, all while keeping the process engaging and innovative.
Max Terzi - CTO
Driven by a track record of success, Max over sees the development team who are building the next-generation Investigative Services platform, which adapts across industries and use cases, from custom to scalable solutions. By combining modern AI with forensic advancements, he bridges the gap between intelligence methodologies and real-world strategies.
Brett Huselton - ADVISOR - Strategy
A neuroscience and psychology biotech nerd that spent two decades building growth-oriented services businesses leveraging clinical, commercial and other real world evidence sources in a highly regulated healthcare sector that recognized the converging power of data liquidity, strategic forensic assessment and sophisticated infrastructure and analysis could change the fragmented landscape of investigational science just as it has.
Mission: What We Do...
Unite digital intelligence with forensic investigative strategies to uncover credible, actionable insights that deliver client outcomes.
Forensic. Value. Delivered.
Every investigation we conduct is
grounded in responsibility,
transparency, and societal impact.
Get in touch
Fill out the form or contact us directly to discuss how Cyphr can provide intelligence solutions tailored to your organization's needs.
Email Id
info@webutation.com
Headquarters
Philadelphia