Identity Resolution Daily

By the Infoglide Team

Illinois Business Journal: Closing fraud loopholes would decrease Illinois’ workers’ comp costs

“Workers’ compensation costs for Illinois employers are higher than any of its bordering states, according to Jay Shattuck, executive director of the Illinois Chamber Employment Law Council. Illinois’ average total cost per claim, he says, is $21,335 - compared to Indiana’s $10,517, Wisconsin’s $11,342, Iowa’s $14,292 and Missouri’s $17,309.”

Hub Solution Designs: MDM: Buzz-Worthy But Not A Back-Breaker

“The software vendors who’ve flocked to MDM and put the MDM label on everything under the sun have certainly confused the market. Even so, the MDM software market grew 24% from 2007 to 2008.  In spite of the tough economic times we’re currently in, that rapid growth rate should continue for the next several years.”

Hi-Tech-Blog: Economy down = Employee theft up

“Brian J. Mich, head of anticorruption compliance and investigations at BDO Consulting, says during tough financial times, ‘people have a tendency to give in to temptation to commit criminal behavior,’ and that employers tend to become more vigilant. Mich also observes that people viewed as the most trustworthy–those who have ‘access to systems and information’–often commit the biggest thefts.”

Crain’s New York Business: Shoplifting increases at retail stores

“According to the nationwide study, 84% of retailers, including department stores, specialty apparel companies, electronic stores and drugstores, have seen an increase in theft and amateur shoplifting over the last three months. More than 75% of stores report a rise in financial fraud, and 80% cite intensified organized retail crime.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Intelligent Enterprise: Master Data Management Adoption Going Strong

“Business units and IT departments collaborate, cleanse, publish and protect common information assets that are shared across the enterprise. Gartner, however, cautioned that there is no single technology that meets all MDM user requirements, and products vary by technology, industry, data domain and use case, and many span multiple domains.”

Insurance & Financial Advisor: New York man arrested for workers’ compensation fraud

“Queen is accused of accepting $3,000 in workers’ compensation benefits from the New York State Insurance Fund and stating that he was not working as the result of a job-related knee injury. He later collected $7,000 in workers’ compensation benefits from AIG insurance, claiming an injury to the same knee that prevented him from working.”

CIO: The Ugly Truth About “One Version of the Truth”

“‘Many organizations spend months and endure significant costs to obtain the reporting and analysis capabilities that BI promises,’ Hatch writes, ‘only to find that different ‘versions of the truth’ still exist without any definite way of determining which one is real or accurate.’”

Chronicle Herald: Flight rules raise privacy worries

“The name, gender and birth date of Canadians flying from Toronto to destinations such as Cuba, Mexico or even Europe will be transmitted by airlines to the TSA under its Secure Flight program, to take effect next year. The agency will then vet the names against security watch lists aimed at keeping dangerous people on the ground.”

DN/Online: Ask me about my panties

“Retail theft is on the rise and the National Retail Federation said in its 2008 report that 68 percent of retailers have been able to identify or recover stolen merchandise and gift cards on online auction sites, 61 percent more than last year. The report also indicated that 63 percent have seen an increase in e fencing selling stolen items on online auction sites - activity in the last year.”

Seacoastonline.com: Beware organized crime online

“Organized retail crime involves the organized theft of retail merchandise that is resold to consumers through online auction sites and through other outlets, like local flea markets. These organized crime rings target over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, baby formula, tobacco cessation products, pregnancy strips, diabetic test strips, cosmetics and similar types of personal care items.”

bobsguide: Recession gives rise to online fraud fears

“Business Journal said the study by fraud detection specialist 41st Parameter and the Merchant Risk Council found that 84 per cent of respondents are concerned that internet retailers will face a ’slight or substantial’ increase in fraudulent activity.”

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By the Infoglide Team

NOTE: We will start posting again after Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey Day!

datanomic: Are we nearly there yet?

“In the 1990s, Customer Relationship Management promised, amongst other things, to provide us with a single view of customers, but the ideal fragmented into a number of different disciplines, largely dictated by technology vendors.  Instead of a single customer view, most organisations have multiple, often inconsistent views of their customers and prospects delivered through an assortment of Sales Force Automation, Analytical CRM and Campaign Management systems each propagating their own database.”

Scamtypes: 5 Types Of Social Networking Scam - #1 The Fake Identity

“Setting up a new profile on the major social networking sites is an incredibly simple thing to do. For criminals this presents a tremendous opportunity as it allows them to affiliate themselves with just about any identity, whether that is a real person or not. For some, a fake identity may just be a means of having fun online, however warped that intention may be. For others, far more sinister motives guide them, from arranging risky meetings to making abusable connections and many other shady reasons.”

Conde Nast Daily Traveler: Bush Officials Claim a Kinder, Gentler Airport Security

“And sometime in January, you will start giving your birth date, home address, and full legal name when you make an airline reservation–all part of a ’secure flight’ initiative that will reduce the number of innocent people who are falsely flagged as potential terrorists because their names resemble those of actual bad guys.”

The Bunker Blog: Macy’s Loss Prevention Agent Arrested For Assisting Shoplifters

“One of the alleged shoplifters was the sister of the loss prevention agent. The 24 year old LP agent had been working for Macy’s since February, and his manager suspected something was going on, so a surveillance was conducted on the LP agent by the manager.”

Evolution of Security: Why?

“More than 23 million passengers were screened at our checkpoints last year during the holiday season, and many of those passengers travel infrequently. Those are the travelers we’d most like to reach. Passenger feedback has shown us that people are more willing to comply with security procedures if they understand the ‘why’ behind the measure.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Windsor Star: OLG coughs up cash

“The insider policy is to guard against fraud, such as a retailer who tells a customer a ticket is not a winner and then tries to claim the prize. In the spring of 2007, a provincial ombudsman issued a scathing report on the OLG and said Ontario store owners and their families had collected tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims.”

MarketWatch: Worldwide thefts cost retailers US $104 billion annually - Survey

“This year’s survey, the most complete analysis of global shrink ever conducted, reports key findings on retail shrinkage and crime in 36 countries and on five continents, based on data from a confidential survey of 920 large retailers with combined sales of U.S. $814 billion and 115,612 operating retail outlets…’This sum represents a tax imposed on honest people by retail criminals of $229.73 per household or $71.12 for every single person in the 36 countries surveyed,’ said Professor Bamfield, Director of the Centre for Retail Research.”

Jackson Citizen Patriot: Kids learn online dangers

“Internet predators lurk on networking Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, or in chat rooms, looking for young victims. ‘Everybody you meet online is an Internet stranger,’ Malik Williams, an Internet-safety presenter from the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative, told more than 50 fifth-graders Tuesday at Concord Elementary School. ‘That’s why it’s important to keep yourself safe.’”

Bucyrus TelegraphForum: Bucyrus experiences rash of break-ins

“‘There is a new trend in what we call e-fencing. Thieves are selling their stolen items on the Internet versus just selling them outright. They can get up to 70 percent or more of the value if they sell on the Internet versus selling them on the streets, where they only get about 30 percent of the value,’ Teets said.”

SFGate: Ex-S.F. firefighter’s workers’ comp problem

“Indeed, if Hijjawi were trying to hide her fitness quest, she wasn’t doing a very good job. Our own Google search turned up records showing her running in marathons in Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, Honolulu and elsewhere. From 2001 to 2006, according to records on the Web site Athlinks, Hijjawi ran in no fewer than a dozen marathons. And her biography on another site shows she was taking on even bigger challenges, including the Canada 2005 Ultraman super triathlon competition - in which competitors swim 6.2 miles, ride a bike for 170 miles and run 52 miles, twice the distance of a marathon. Completing it took her more than 33 hours.”

Bunker Blog: Update On Cops Involved In Major Shoplifting Ring

“Kevin Burchell and Clifford Barber, both police officers, worked with two others, one of them an employee at the Walmart the items were taken from; to get up to $200,000.00 worth of merchandise out of the store and onto an eBay site. According to the latest report, Barber was the mastermind behind the scheme, and sold the items on eBay and to friends and acquaintances.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Lottery Scam: Lottery Scam Watch - Keep Track of Your Tickets

“The ticket was bought in May. When the ticket holder came to the store for verification, the clerk allegedly told him he was mistaken and kept the ticket. A police report contends that Melissa Trahan, 27, sent the winning slip to her mother in Mississippi. That woman, Gwen Landry, drove to the state capital, Baton Rouge, and cashed it in for the $800,000.”

Hub Solution Designs: Customer Data Quality

“Sometimes, attempts are made to programmatically improve data quality within a customer record, but because of tight deadlines, data quality across the file is usually not given serious attention.”

CT.gov: Waterford Town Employee Charged with Workers’ Compensation Fraud

“The warrant alleges that Mr. Hall ‘intentionally misrepresented his claimed injury and intentionally failed to disclose his employment and wage earnings while collecting disability benefits.’”

Homeland Security Watch: Senate Introduces its First DHS Authorization Bill

“The Senate bill elevates the assistant secretary for policy to the position of Under Secretary for Policy, to ensure policy coordination across the Department, it strengthens the authorities of the Office of International Affairs at DHS, and it authorizes the National Cyber Security Center, along with a private sector board to advise the Secretary on cyber security policy.”

Workers Compensation: California Fines Auto Body Shops Without Workers’ Comp Insurance

“Failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance is fraud, plain and simple. This is a form of workers’ compensation fraud – not having the appropriate coverage – is more common than you might think.”

Central Coast News: Santa Cruz police crack large commercial burglary case at Safeway

“Safeway loss prevention officers notified Santa Cruz police on Sept. 9 that the company’s store on Morrissey Boulevard had lost a significant amount of merchandise to theft and store managers suspected that an employee, Emanuel Anthony Ruiz, 30, was stealing merchandise. He allegedly took cosmetics, shoes, clothing and over-the-counter pharmaceutical items, including medications, from the store, police reported. Ruiz, with the help of the three others arrested, was then selling the items online, police said.”

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By the Infoglide Team

info4security: The Cybercrime Arms Race

“Criminal activity has always mirrored legitimate business. The image of a Mafia accountant may be the first to spring to mind. However, it’s worth noting that cybercrime is not currently organised into one or more worldwide Mafia-like organizations with a Dr No figure at the helm. Rather, it’s an interdependent world based on groups who have complementary functionality.”

Portfolio.com: Insider Trading Suspects Settle Up

“In what the S.E.C. called the ‘Wall Street Serial Insider Trading Ring,’ 14 defendants, in two different schemes, traded repeatedly on non-public information in exchange for cash kickbacks, according to the complaint. Overall, they allegedly made at least $15 million in illegal profits.”

SecurityFocus: Two-thirds of firms hit by cybercrime

“More than 7,800 companies responded to the survey (pdf), which classified cybercrime into cyber attacks, cyber theft, and other incidents.”

Information Week: Congress Extends Cybercrime Laws

“The U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill — H.R. 5938 — Monday. The amendment — part of Senate bill S. 2168 — expands the ability of the federal government to prosecute identity theft crimes and allows victims to obtain restitution for the time and money they spend trying to restore their credit. The legislation, which must be signed by President George W. Bush, allows a fine and up to five years imprisonment for spyware.”

NRF LPInformation: Update on ORC Hearing, September 22 (Monday) at 4pm

“The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security is scheduled to address H.R. 6713, the ‘E-fencing Enforcement Act of 2008′, H.R. 6491, the ‘Organized Retail Crime Act of 2008′ and S. 3434, the ‘Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2008′.”

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

At the recent International Conference on Cybercrime Forensics Education and Training in Canterbury UK, international experts discussed the challenges involved in keeping up with increasingly sophisticated criminals who target children on the internet. They covered a wide array of subjects that illustrated the complex ways that computer systems are exposed, including topics like mobile phone forensic investigation, the social effects of Spam, digital intrusion forensics, implications and methodology of facial ID training, and virtual reality police training.

Pedophiles use multiple forms of internet communication to share information, including photographs. A recent infamous example in the UK is Philip Anthony Thompson. A British police unit discovered that his home computer was hosting a quarter of a million child porn images, including 3000 depicting sadistic abuse, and that Thompson served as an administrator of a forum that enabled and encouraged sharing of images and knowledge. 

Is the fact that Thompson was caught a sign that law enforcement has the problem under control? Not exactly. Denis Edgar-Nevill, chairman of the cybercrime forensics conference, pointed out that “people should not believe that cybercrime is being dealt with well or that it is something law enforcement agencies are on top of.” He was not being critical of law enforcement, and in fact he commended them for work in certain areas. It’s just that the scale of the problem is so huge, and with the growing number of avenues for people to communicate, it’s incredibly difficult for enforcement agencies to keep up. Their resources are divided across a number of cybercrimes, and, for better or worse, financial crimes are often considered more serious.

Given the finite human resources of police agencies, can technology fill the gap? Sexual predation depends on the use of fraudulent identities. Identity resolution technology has been used to fight many other types of fraud. It can find stolen goods being fenced on eBay by ORC groups. Stock exchanges find hidden relationships that lead to identification of insider trades. Retailers use it to detect and prevent deceptive returns of stolen merchandise by deceitful employees. Lotteries can detect false claims with winning tickets. Workers’ compensation agencies leverage identity resolution to identify fraudulent claims. And terrorists are prevented from boarding airplanes.

With proper cooperation between law enforcement agencies and information technology vendors, surely identity resolution technology can enable the development of automated systems that will shine a light on predators and greatly diminish their ability to operate under the radar of police groups.

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[Post from Infoglide] Managing Unstructured Data

“In an earlier article, Governing Unstructured Data, I discussed some of the challenges in managing and securing unstructured data in a large enterprise. Given that unstructured data accounts for more than 80% of all business data, this is a big issue.”

b-eye.com - Business Intelligence Network - Blog: James Taylor: What if someone with a lower pay grade were to do this?

“Patrick Joseph Gauthier wrote a great post this week called “Business Process Reengineering: The Right Skills And Roles For The Task Will Save You Money” and I loved the question he suggests (that gave me the title for this post):  ‘what if someone with a lower pay grade were to do this?’ . . . This is, indeed, one of the main drivers of decision management. . . . Instead of having hundreds of front-line staff refer decisions to many managers who follow guidelines taught to them by the one person who understands the company policy, empower the front-line staff to act by having that one person control the rules in a decision and having that decision happen automatically.”

kentnews.co.uk: Police facing tough battle to tackle cybercrime

“Tackling paedophiles who use the internet to groom children through chat rooms and create and share child pornography on the web was discussed at the conference and has been the subject of many high-profile cases. This time last year a paedophile ring involving a woman, who used to work at a pharmaceutical company in Kent, were jailed as part of a Kent Police investigation called Operation Starlight, which traced the criminals’ activity using the internet. Officers discovered extensive abuse of children under 13.”

The Bunker Blog: Couple Who Sold Stolen Merchandise On Craigslist And eBay Caught Using Doll And Stroller To Shoplift

“A couple in Pasco, WA was caught using a doll and stroller to conceal DVD’s and other merchandise. . . . At least they weren’t using a real baby! Still, they had over $800.00 in stolen merchandise in the stroller when police stopped them. Police have also stated that the couple have sold stolen merchandise on Craigslist and eBay in the past.”

Evolution of Security: Seven Years Later

“Thinking back to 9/11 and when I joined TSA, I remember how people often said hello and even shook our hands. For the traveling public, it’s been seven years without an attack in the U.S., and to many, the rules are now burdensome and our checkpoints are a necessary evil. For officers, it’s one day at a time, with some days when you find a gun, a knife, hollowed out shoes, or items in bags that look like plastic explosives or an IED. Things that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, your heart stop, because it’s a threat until you can prove it’s not one. It happens far more than you think, so when an officer asks to get a better look at you or your bag, know that it’s because they want to make sure everything’s okay.”

PogoWasRight.org: Hacker pleads guilty in breach (TJX update)

“Federal prosecutors won a guilty plea yesterday from one of 11 men who made up a ring that was charged last month with the largest data theft case in history, involving tens of millions of customers of retailers, including TJX Cos. of Framingham and BJ’s Wholesale Club of Natick. Separately the government also said it has evidence the group breached the security of many more businesses than previously disclosed.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds: Lottery Bandit Nabbed in California

“In May, alert SaveMart grocery store employees noted an individual attempting to cash in a on a winning lottery ticket reported stolen in the burglaries. . . . It’s pretty obvious that the alert employees at SaveMart were tipped off electronically that the ticket(s) being presented were ‘hot.’ . . . This isn’t the first time in recent history, the California Lottery Police have made headlines. In May, it was announced that they were using undercover agents to catch dishonest retailers, who were cheating winners out of their prizes. Winning tickets of $500 to $25,000 were presented to retailers and several of them were caught pretending the prize was smaller and keeping the proceeds for themselves. Several arrests were made throughout California as a result of the sting.”

Informatica Perspectives: Communicating the Value of Data Quality

“Many of our customers express frustration that even though it is quite obvious how their business suffers from poor data quality, they find it difficult to convince their associates to invest in initiatives that correct the problems. Earlier this year, we participated in Rob Karel’s Forrester research that addresses this issue. The resulting research paper is titled ‘A Truism for Trusted Data: Think Big, Start Small’ and its getting a lot of interest. . . . The report is available from Forrester’s web site. It contains some nice examples of how customers have built a business case for justifying investment in Data Quality.”

KRISTV.com: Squabble Heats Up Over Online Sale of Stolen Goods

“Lawmakers are pushing for a crackdown on online marketplaces, such as eBay, Yahoo, Overstock.com and others, for inadequate efforts to block the sale of stolen products on their platforms. . . . The proposed legislation is the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle over Internet intermediaries’ responsibility for their customers’ actions. Supporters of the bill want online marketplaces to more closely monitor transactions on their sites. They say the technology exists for the sites to track stolen goods sales, whether through targeting sellers who are known for proffering the products or hunting down frequently stolen goods.”

PogoWasRight.org: DHS Privacy Office - Privacy Impact Assessments

“The following Privacy Impact Assessments have been added to DHS’s site:”

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By the Infoglide Team

Wired Blog: Chertoff: I’m Listening to the Internet (Not in a Bad Way)

“The one thing we don’t want to do, because the culture of the internet is opposed to anything that smacks of government clumsy heavy-handedness, is that we don’t want to be sitting on the internet, like certain other countries do, where people suspect we are limiting what people can see. We don’t want to force people to do what they don’t want to do. We don’t want them to think we are intruding into their private space.”

AuctionBytes.com: Legislation Would Open eBay Records to Retailers

“House Resolution 6713 was introduced just weeks after the introduction of H. R. 6491, the Organized Retail Crime Act of 2008, which would require auction sites to cooperate with retailers and police and would allow retailers to sue over the sale of stolen merchandise. The National Retail Federation (NRF) issued press releases praising both proposals, stating that retailers lose between $15 and $30 billion to ‘organized retail crime‘ each year.”

Google Public Policy Blog: Now playing on YouTube: online family safety

“As a member and supporter of the Family Online Safety Institute, we are proud to let you know that FOSI recently launched its own branded YouTube channel. This YouTube channel represents one more example of how FOSI is identifying the best practices, tools, and methods for keeping kids safe online.”

The Bunker Blog: Charlotte, NC Shoplifting Statistics June 2008

“I’m afraid that, if we blame the economy, we’re just giving the thieves the excuse they need to steal more. If we ‘feel sorry’ for the thief who steals $150 shoes because times are tough, then we empower them to steal more because they feel entitled to our merchandise.”

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