Identity Resolution Daily

This post is based on a March 31 interview with Infoglide Senior Vice President Douglas Wood by Linda L. Briggs for TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute), March 31, 2009. Click here to read the entire interview.

In a comprehensive discussion, Doug Wood of Infoglide Software spoke about an area of confusion that exists when people discuss identity resolution. He pointed out that the term is sometimes misapplied to describe software that performs data matching alone.

[An identity resolution engine is] software that allows organizations to connect disparate data sources in order to understand possible entity matches and non-obvious relationships. It boils down to this: Providing capabilities for organizations to understand “who’s who” and “who knows whom” across multiple data silos. Occasionally, when we introduce the concept of identity resolution technology to a new customer, their immediate response is “I see, but we already have a data matching engine.” The truth is, identity resolution engines have data matching at the core, but [they] provide much more functionality and flexibility than that.

So if identity resolution incorporates data matching, what really differentiates it from data matching products?

Perhaps the key element of an identity resolution engine is the ability to take the entity match and relationship results, then apply domain-specific rules to them. How does the enterprise treat Customer A by virtue of the fact that he or she has some non-obvious relationship with Customer B? The answer to that question is specific to the domain.

Most of us are familiar with the use of data matching for removing duplicates from databases and in cleansing input for data warehouses and master data management, but identity resolution is used in unique ways.

With identity resolution technology, data isn’t subjected to deterioration processes such as cleansing or record merging. Rather, the data can remain in its original state and in its original location.

What this means is that identity resolution is especially adept at uncovering risk, fraud, and conflicts of interest since the “forensic value of individual records is preserved for ongoing analysis.” While government is a key market for identity resolution engines, a growing number of commercial applications are emerging in financial services (e.g., PATRIOT Act compliance, detection of loan fraud and credit card fraud), retail (e.g., uncovering organized retail crime activities by comparing shoplifters with employees or frequent merchandise returners), workers compensation (e.g., finding employers that change attributes to avoid paying premiums), lottery corporations (e.g., compare winning ticket holders against lottery retail employees to discover potential fraud), and customer relationship management (e.g., keeping two similar records unmerged until birth date attribute uncovers a father/son relationship).

What prevents traditional data matching products from addressing these problems?

There are no problems with matching engines per se. They just aren’t identity resolution engines. Matching engines typically use one or two algorithms, perhaps mathematical in nature, that examine structured data looking for name matches. They provide an improvement over Soundex, but little more. What they do is say “Yes, this is a match” or “No, this is not a match.”

Common requirements for solving identity resolution problems include connecting to more diverse data types and formats, handling higher volumes, and delivering deeper insight into non-obvious relationships from existing uncleansed data sources.

If identity resolution engines have existed for years, what has caused the recent rush to employ them?

As part of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, the Department of Homeland Security began a robust search for identity resolution technology that could keep terrorists off airplanes by comparing passenger attributes against terrorist watch lists, no-fly lists, and other types of threat-related data. Through a few iterations, the selection and implementation process evolved into the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Secure Flight Program, which ultimately thrust identity resolution technology into the limelight. Secure Flight is now widely recognized as the pre-eminent use case for identity resolution technology requirements today, and a number of companies are involved in delivering that solution.

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[Post from Infoglide] Ontology or Living Context?

“IBM’s Jeff Jonas recently wrote a post about what types of problems are appropriate for developing an ontology, i.e. “a rigorous and exhaustive organization of some knowledge domain that is usually hierarchical and contains all the relevant entities and their relations.”  His key point: as the complexity of the data that the ontology is meant to organize increases, the value of the ontology decreases.”

Workers’ Compensation Perspectives: Workers’ Compensation Fraud

“Workers’ compensation fraud is not a victimless crime. The victims of such frauds are not really the workers’ compensation insurers. Instead, the victims are those who play by the rules–the workers, employers and providers/suppliers of services. Workers receive more scrutiny of their claims, employers are subject to more audits and must bear the costs not being covered by those fraudulently under-reporting payroll.”

Chicago Tribune: New airport security rules to require more personal information

“Requiring the airlines to collect more personal information will improve the quality of the watch lists that contain names of possible terrorism and criminal suspects, federal authorities said. It’s also being done to reduce the misidentification of innocent travelers who are mistakenly placed on “no-fly” lists because their names are similar to those found on watch lists—a situation the TSA calls ‘a frustratingly common occurrence.’”

Forrester Blog: BI Nirvana

[Boris Evelson] “I had an amazing client experience the other day. I searched long and hard for a client with flawless, perfect, 100% efficient and effective BI environment and applications. My criteria were tough and that’s why it took me so long (I’ve been searching for as long as I’ve been in the BI business, almost 30 years).”

Insurance Journal: Texas Mutual Fraud Investigations Recover $4.1M in 2008

“According to the company, the $4.1 million includes: claimant fraud future savings of $2,185,170; restitution of $39,374 from claimants; restitution of $1,569,873 in premium fraud; and prevention of $301,467 in health care provider fraud and abusive billing.”

TAWPI Blog: Mastering Data Management

“MDM tends to come across like an infrastructure project or middleware — something that IT would sponsor, according to Dan Power, president of Hub Solution Designs Inc., an MDM consulting firm. But placing sponsorship with IT misses the point, he said. The line of business needs to sponsor the project because it can identify the business value the data holds and how a single view of that data can affect the bottom line.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Background Now: AG Seeks Injunction Against Contractors Asset Protection Association, Inc. (ConAPA) and Eugene Magre

“‘This company falsely promised its clients that if they gave their employees empty titles and worthless shares of stock they could avoid tens of thousands of dollars in workers compensation premiums,’ Attorney General Brown said. ‘But you can’t simply call a security guard a vice president and avoid complying with the law through a sophisticated and fraudulent scheme.’”

DailyTech: New Bills Target Stolen Merchandise Sold Online

“Under the new legislation, the brick and mortar retailers would score a major coup in that they could order eBay.com, Overstock.com, and Amazon.com to remove numerous goods without any proof.  Under the proposed laws, failure by the online retailers to ‘expeditiously investigate’ and remove the items would result in criminal penalties.”

BeyeNetwork: Business Drivers and Master Data

“Is the actual business need for a single version of the data, or just multiple versions, each of which is of higher quality? Drill down into this a little bit and you may need additional information from your business customers. What constitutes a requirement for master data? A situation in which two business processes need to have a fully shared view of the same representation of a data item?”

Web of Data: Report on Data Discovery by Bloor Research

“…there are now a number of products on the market that can discover data relationships that do not fall within the category of either data profiling or data quality. As a result, it is time to consider the importance of data discovery, and its requirements, as a market in its own right.”

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By the Infoglide Team

[Post from Infoglide] Rules-Based and Probabilistic Entity Resolution

“If you’ve followed recent developments in the entity resolution market, including the recent re-positioning of existing vendors like Netrics and Initiate Systems, you may have heard discussion about the relative merits of rules-based entity resolution using attribute-specific analytics versus probabilistic entity resolution that uses mathematical analytics exclusively.”

[Post from Infoglide] Entity Extraction: The Flip Side of Entity Resolution

“Under our working definition of entity resolution as locating and merging references to the same entity, the last installment focused on the merge problem, and how matching is often used as a stand-in for ER.  Now let’s take a look at the locating problem.”

NY State Dept. of Labor: Monroe County Contractors Arrested on Charges of Fraudulently Misclassifying Employees

“‘I know times are tough, and employers are looking to cut costs wherever they can,’ said M. Patricia Smith, Commissioner of the Department of Labor. ‘But it is precisely because times are tough that employers must continue to obey the law. Workers misclassified as ‘independent contractors’ or paid off the books are not receiving protections they are entitled to - protections like unemployment insurance that are particularly critical, given today’s uncertain economy.’”

SearchSAP.com: Successful MDM strategy starts with finding broken processes, not technology

“MDM tends to come across like an infrastructure project or middleware — something that IT would sponsor, according to Dan Power, president of Hub Solution Designs Inc., an MDM consulting firm. But placing sponsorship with IT misses the point, he said.”

BeyeNetwork: The Impact of the Obama Healthcare Agenda on Business Intelligence

“There are several areas of the Obama-Biden plan that could have a significant impact on business intelligence if they come to fruition. The first is the intent to ‘invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors.’ First and foremost is wider adoption of electronic medical records (EMR).”

[Infoglide founder David Wheeler’s father Roger was an owner of World Jai Alai. Winter Hill Gang members James J. “Whitey” Bulger, Stephen Flemmi, and Johnny Martorano were indicted for his 1981 murder 20 years later in 2001.]  

Mercury News: Ex-FBI agent sentenced to 40 years in 1982 killing

“Former FBI agent John Connolly was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison for slipping information to Boston mobsters that led to the 1982 shooting death of a Miami gambling executive.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Shocking Behavior

“This will rock you to your core: bad guys who are the targets of law enforcement investigations try very hard to hide their identities whenever possible. OK, so maybe that isn’t so shocking. There are very few of us who have not heard the acronym ‘AKA’ (Also Known As). We associate such terms – AKA, alias, assumed name, handle, etc. – as signaling devious intent. Formal studies have shown that nearly a third of criminals have used false names for the purpose of intentional deception.”

nextgov: ‘Fusion center’ privacy fears persist

“As the program matures, the DHS Privacy Office anticipates discovering new privacy challenges that need to be addressed and the PIA will be updated whenever necessary, the document said. Additionally, the Privacy Office called for ‘a regular and ongoing examination of privacy issues within the fusion centers.’”

Toronto City News: OLG Bans Staff From Buying Tickets

“The move follows scathing criticism by ombudsman Andre Marin, who also suggested including lottery retailers in the ban. ‘If retailers, insiders, prove they are an ungovernable lot, then we should ban them from playing the lottery,’ he noted.”

North Country Gazette: Charter Bus Operator Accused Of Workers Comp Fraud

“According to investigators, DiPaolo failed to provide workers’ compensation insurance for the 25 employees of his school and charter bus service between 2006 and 2008, thereby avoiding payment of an estimated $130,000 in premiums.”

CIO: Data-Management Danger: Less Than Half of MDM Plans Are Effective

“So while many companies acknowledge their data problems and resultant poor decision-making processes, less than one-third of businesses have taken steps to remedy the situation with a data-governance program, according to the results. Thirteen percent of respondents said they were unclear as to what data governance was.”

Destination CRM: Megavendors Look Smart in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence

“The report calls 2008 ‘a year of transition’ following ‘the vendor merger and acquisition turbulence of 2007′ — a reference to the major acquisitions of Business Objects by SAP, Cognos by IBM, and Hyperion Solutions by Oracle.”

NOTE: Our next post will be on Wednesday, February 18. Happy President’s Day!

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By the Infoglide Team

CBC News: Insider lottery wins almost double earlier estimate

“Also, the analysis found 50 instances that suggested an insider retained a winning ticket and claimed it for himself or herself. This misreporting occurs when a lottery player has two winning “free” tickets, but the retailer reports only one ticket as a winner.”

Bastrop Daily Enterprise: La. Workforce Commission Announces Workers’ Compensation Fraud Program

“LWC Executive Director Tim Barfield and Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration Director Chris Broadwater were joined by David Caldwell, the deputy director of the Office of the Attorney General’s Criminal Division, in announcing the program. ‘All employers doing business in Louisiana are required to provide workers’ compensation coverage for their employees. Businesses that are not covering their employees are shortchanging those employees and driving up costs for other businesses,’ Barfield said.”

Forrester: Is BI Recession-Proof, Or Are We Just Bracing For The Next Shoe To Drop?

[James Kobielus] “What’s going on here? Is the BI industry recession proof, or is the next soft-economy shoe–or heavy hammer–poised to drop on this segment’s unsuspecting heads?”

FederalComputerWeek: House again passes traveler redress bill

“Problems with the name-based watch list have been scrutinized in congressional hearings and received extensive press coverage. However, DHS officials have said the Secure Flight Program will reduce mismatches.”

Risk & Insurance: A Simple Solution to a Multibillion-Dollar Problem

“In August 2007, the Employers’ Fraud Task Force rolled out a draft of O’Brien’s form to get the impressions of the industry. The EFTF is a private agency based in California that has been fighting workers’ compensation fraud for 10 years. Its members consist of a group of large, self-insured companies including Disney, Safeway and Warner Brothers. Reactions from EFTF members on the O’Brien form were very positive.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Identity Resolution: Taking Off in 2009?

“On February 2nd, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about IBM’s application of its identity resolution technology in government organizations, noting they expect it to generate $1 billion in the next four years. Just 18 months ago, Gartner initially identified entity resolution and analysis (aka identity resolution) as a technology “on the rise” in its analysis of the business intelligence (BI) market.  A year later in July 2008, it had moved from the bottom to near the top of the curve.”

Wall Street Journal: At IBM, New Uses for Old Software

“IBM’s software compares data in various databases and finds suspicious relationships. For example, if several applications for visa extensions had different addresses, but all used the same cellphone number, the system would alert immigration staffers that they might be associates requiring a closer look.”

PostalNewsBlog: Massachusetts carrier charged with workers comp fraud

“According to authorities, in November 2007, McComb allegedly intimidated a former customer who spoke to investigators from USPS regarding McComb’s alleged employment status. The alleged fraudulent activities were initially detected by investigators from the OWCP and USPS who referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office. Authorities allege McComb fraudulently collected payments totaling $25,431.09.”

Gartner: Best of Breed MDM versus Generalist MDM – which is best?

[Andrew White]”Users have to decide what they need to focus on – and this may change over time.  Business drivers may lead to the recognition that “deep MDM” skills are needed first hand to get to grips with very complex product data workflows, but later, a more general approach is needed to master other domains.”

Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: 2008 Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame

“Thousands of employees had no workers’ compensation protection when three men helped sell fake policies to small businesses. The scheme stole at least $70 million in premiums. One injured worker couldn’t afford a prosthetic leg. Another lost his home and marriage. A grandmother lost her home and lived in her car.”

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By Robert Barker, Infoglide Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer

On February 2nd, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about IBM’s application of its identity resolution technology in government organizations, noting they expect it to generate $1 billion in the next four years. Just 18 months ago, Gartner initially identified entity resolution and analysis (aka identity resolution) as a technology “on the rise” in its analysis of the business intelligence (BI) market.  A year later in July 2008, it had moved from the bottom to near the top of the curve.  Moving into 2009, identity resolution is emerging as an independent horizontal market with multiple vertical applications, despite a challenging economy.

As with any emerging horizontal technology, the requirements for identity resolution solutions derive from needs articulated by early adopter organizations in a variety of vertical markets. Using identity resolution technology, these early adopters are developing and implementing vertical solutions for many fraud applications, including identifying employers who deceive workers compensation agencies, catching retailers who swindle winning lottery tickets, and detecting retail returns fraud and organized retail crime. Of course, the mother of all identity resolution projects is assessing terrorist risk of airline passengers before they board. On the surface these applications may seem unrelated, but they are driven by two significant common concerns – understanding more clearly who they are dealing with and discovering hidden, non-obvious relationships.

Until recently the identity resolution space was often overlooked, sometimes addressed by custom in-house applications, or inadequately served by cobbling together from products in adjacent and overlapping markets, such as data quality (DQ), master data management (MDM), customer relationship management (CRM), and business intelligence (BI), with existing systems and data sources.

As vendors from these adjacent markets tried to address the needs with existing products, customers found that they lack the combination of integrated capabilities needed to adequately build identity resolution solutions. Here’s a chart that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each adjacent market’s approach to identity resolution.

From all indications, we expect continued acceleration of interest in solutions based on identity resolution technologies during 2009. We’d like to hear your thoughts.

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By the Infoglide Team

Benefit Fraud: Where are the deterrent sentences for benefit fraud?

“A repeat offender pedophile is on incapacity benefit [workers comp]. Why, one wonders. He seems to be well enough to assault 13 year old girls but not well enough to work.”

ebiz: While Business Intelligence Needs to Move from Passive to Active

“So, the difference is that you’re looking at information that tells you where you made mistakes, and perhaps how to avoid them in the future. Or, that you’re looking at information that tells you you’re about to make a mistake, perhaps in the context of historical information, and takes corrective action immediately without human intervention. Which seems more productive to you?”

Portland Press Herald: Hit-and-run thieves strike Maine stores

“Loss-prevention specialists say eBay, Craig’s List and other online auction and free advertising sites have fueled the increase in retail crime because they provide a new and anonymous way for shoplifters to resell stolen goods. ‘The best thing to happen to shoplifting is the Internet,’ said Strong.”

North Country Gazette: Self-Employed Plumber Nabbed For Scam

“While receiving benefits, Hogdin attested in signed statements that he had not returned to any form of work.  An investigation carried out by the New York State Insurance Fund’s Division of Confidential Investigations revealed that Hogdin, in fact, was self-employed repairing small engine machinery.”

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January 30th, 2009

[Post from Infoglide] Will Workers Comp Employer Fraud Keep Rising?

“In our collections of links about identity resolution, we often include stories about employees who defraud workers compensation agencies. Most of the time it concerns someone who’s claimed a disability in order to get payments and is then working another job that proves they are healthy.  Another twist is covering up the fact that a relative drawing workers comp benefits has died in order to continue receiving payments.”

Insurance & Financial Advisor: Pennsylvania man among seven charged in multi-million dollar workers’ comp fraud

“In a pair of recent indictments, the defendants are accused of lying on insurance applications and failing to remit insurance premiums to the insurance companies, instead keeping the money for themselves, according to theNew Jersey Attorney General’s Office. The defendants are also accused of laundering money so the scheme would go undetected. As a result, many people were allegedly left without workers compensation insurance.”

Business Intelligence News: Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms 2009

“Recently, Gartner published its report called Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms 2009. This report is Gartner’s opinion about the market of BI and their main vendors.”

Network World: MySpace faces fresh controversy over sex offender issue

“Pallorium maintains a database of more than 600,000 sex offenders culled from state registries around the country. Rambam said he took a random sample of 40,000 names from that database and then searched more than 2 million MySpace member pages for matches. An initial search using first and last names, approximate age and city and state of residence as keywords yielded over 12,400 matches, Rambam claimed.”

Daily Insurer: New Yorker Nabbed in Workers’ Comp Scheme

“According to Solomon Jones, an investigator with the Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau, Cossio submitted signed statements to the Insurance Fund falsely claiming he was unable to work after injuring his back while employed as a laborer. Jones said investigators found that Cossio was working as a porter and maintenance attendant while collecting the benefits.”

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