Behind-the-scenes of the Panama Papers investigation: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Director Gerard Royle delivered a TED talk about the leak of 1.5 million documents from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law film. Ryle tells of how someone called John Doe had copied 40 years of records at the law firm — spreadsheets, client files, e-mails — then reached out to two journalists at German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung who then contacted the Washington D.C.-based ICIJ.

“Where do you even begin to tell a story that can trail off into every corner of the globe and that can affect almost every person in any language, sometimes in ways they don’t even know yet?” says Ryle. The challenge was how to make this huge number of documents searchable and readable and to store them in a secure location on the cloud. The ICIJ was joined by 350 reporters from more than 100 media organizations in 76 countries through a highly-secured virtual newsroom where they would collaborate to look for trends. The idea was: “Native eyes on native names.” (If you’re a Game of Thrones addict: Don’t miss a reference at 7:34. (Runtime 13:08)