Identity Resolution Daily

By Mike Betron, Infoglide Software Director of Marketing

On the one hand, recognition of the power that entity resolution can bring to bear on challenging problems both in the commercial and public realms continues to increase. On the other hand, resistance to change and lack of budget seem to be inhibiting dramatic increases in productivity and effectiveness that could be gained by a more rapid uptake of this new technology.

A few days after the 2009 Christmas Bomber incident, President Barack Obama made this statement:

“The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack. But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the ‘no fly’ list. In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had. The information was there.”

Being able to connect the dots by using readily available data is every bit as challenging for private companies. Many commercial organizations (e.g., insurance companies, banks), similarly have all the right data available to them to solve problems related to identity.

While some people are skeptical that we’re making enough progress in developing and using advanced analytics, we’re certain that the remaining issues are solvable using available entity resolution technology in conjunction with readily available data.  It’s more a matter of will and resources than lack of capability that’s holding us back.

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[Post from Infoglide] New Record for Healthcare Fraud: $163 Million

“Last night the largest Medicare fraud operation yet discovered was in the headlines: ‘A vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates used phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat Medicare out of $163 million, the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the program’s history, U.S. authorities said Wednesday. Federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere charged 73 people.’”

Government Executive: Most domestic intel centers lack privacy plans

“After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. government encouraged and funded a proliferation of domestic counterterrorism centers, commonly referred to as state and local homeland security fusion centers. Although 72 centers now exist, only 28 have privacy and civil liberties plans approved by the Homeland Security Department, National Journal has learned.”

marketwire: Cloud Computing Market to Reach $25 Billion by 2013

“Worldwide Cloud Computing market is continuing to grow at a rapid rate and it is expected to cross US$ 25 Billion by the end of 2013. The different segments of the Cloud Computing market (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) show different maturities and adoption levels. The various segments within the SaaS market will grow at a different rate.”

TravelAgentCentral: Update: Secure Flight Rules Effective November 1

“Secure Flight watch list matching takes a matter of seconds to complete, and providing this data enables passengers to print their boarding passes at home or at an airline kiosk, TSA notes. The November 1 deadline marks the end of the year-long grace period for airlines to clear out their systems of older reservations made before Secure Flight requirements took effect in October 2009. After November 1, 2010, Secure Flight will not conduct watch list matching or approve the issuance of a boarding pass by an airline if complete passenger data is not submitted, the TSA says.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Preventable Nightmares?

“Every father’s nightmare happened in North Carolina this week. A young woman apparently left a bar voluntarily with a man she met there, and she was subsequently found murdered. The apparent murderer arrested in Niagara Falls had a criminal record that included sexual abuse and was on probation in North Carolina. Could this tragedy have been prevented?”

mydesert.com: Palm Desert store the good guys in lottery fraud investigation

“In the sting, investigators presented lottery retailers with winning lottery tickets for large dollar amounts and tested whether the retailer would properly inform them of their winnings. The Jensen’s on Cook Street was the only retailer who informed the undercover agent of his winnings.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Airline passengers to face new security rules

“American spokesman Billy Sanez said that for tickets purchased before Sept. 15 for travel dates Nov. 1 and later, the Secure Flight data was requested but not required. The airline’s reservation system now requires the data for travel after Nov. 1. ‘Now, you won’t be able to get a ticket if you don’t give us that information,’ Sanez said. He said it must be provided no matter where the ticket is purchased: online, through a travel agency or at the airport.”

DOJ: Lowell Couple Pleads Guilty in Under-the-Table Payroll Scheme

“The defendants concealed the true size of their payroll from the IRS, and from their workers compensation insurer, in order to reduce their employer payroll taxes (FICA) and their workers compensation insurance payments. They did this by paying their employees in cash each week and hiding any record of the payments. Even though they retained a payroll service, they routinely told the service that C&A had no work and therefore no employees. Relying on this misrepresentation, the payroll service filed over 20 quarterly payroll tax returns on behalf of C&A that reported no payroll.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Fire Chief: NIST Makes Push Toward Electronic Health Record Nationwide Network

“The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a set of approved procedures used to test information-technology systems that work with electronic health records (EHRs), with an emphasis on building out a nationwide health information network for better patient care. The report was released earlier this year in draft form, and now the finalized testing procedures are available for use, said Bettijoyce Lide, program coordinator and senior advisor for NIST’s health IT section.”

Homeland Security: Remarks as Prepared by Secretary Napolitano to New York City First Responders

“By the end of this year, all 72 fusion centers should be able to analyze information and spot trends in order to effectively share timely intelligence – with local law enforcement, and with DHS, so the information can also be used by others within the Intelligence Community. To support this vision: we’re prioritizing fusion centers in our FY2011 grants, and looking for ways to support them through additional technology and personnel, including the deployment of highly-trained experts in critical infrastructure; we’re deploying experienced DHS analysts to every one of these centers – 64 at last count – and we won’t stop until we have them in every one; and we’re linking them together, and with DHS headquarters, through the classified Homeland Security Data Network.”

WRAL.com: Linden woman gets 10 years in prison for Medicaid fraud

“Prosecutors said Elliott filed bills for therapy sessions that never happened, employed non-licensed personnel and provided unwarranted therapy. Tricare, the military equivalent to Medicaid, lost $1.17 million in the scheme, while Medicaid lost $712, 548, authorities said.”

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[Post from Infoglide] International Privacy Compliance

“International companies, particularly those in the financial services markets, have long struggled to comply with the varying data privacy laws of the countries in which they operate.  Simple data analysis practices in one region of the world may or may not be acceptable in another, and the penalties of non-compliance can be harsh to say the least.  This leads to inefficiencies in areas such as AML, Compliance and Fraud Investigation.”

nj.com: Elizabeth doctor is charged with hiring phony physicians to bilk Medicaid

“Despite their alleged lack of medical licenses, authorities say, the trio treated thousands of disabled and low-income patients, helping Masood bilk at least $1.8 million from Medicaid, the federally funded health care program for the poor. ‘Unsuspecting patients were placed at risk through deceit and substandard medical care, while taxpayers were being defrauded of millions of dollars,’ said Michael B. Ward, head of the FBI’s Newark office.”

FierceGovernmentIT: More DHS components to receive Watchlist Service data from FBI

“The specific initial recipients of the new automated service were identified as the TSA’s Office of Transportation Threat Assessment and Credentialing; the TSA Secure Flight Program; CBP’s Passenger Systems Program Office for inclusion in the Traveler Enforcement Compliance System; and US-VISIT for inclusion into the DHS Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT).”

East Valley Tribune: Authorities: Valleywide crime database nears reality

“‘There are so many databases out there, officers want to be able to get into one portal for information,” Romley said. “Technology capabilities have improved immensely over the years, the real future is in databases when it comes to helping solve crimes quicker. Everyone knows the value of having an intelligence sharing system. the meeting was a baby step, but a monumental step forward.’ One example Romley cited was the East Valley Gang and Criminal Fusion Center that consists of law enforcement agencies throughout the East Valley such as the Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale police departments sharing information through having all of their police reports in a database for investigative purposes.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Surface Web, Dark Web, and Social Media

“A recent article in Bank Systems & Technology  says that financial services institutions are discovering increasingly sophisticated attempts to defraud their customers – more sophisticated in how they gather information and employ it in their criminal schemes. ‘As fraudsters increasingly seek to exploit weaknesses in consumers’ defenses through social engineering schemes rather than hack vulnerabilities in banks’ security systems, the need for enterprisewide solutions to detect fraud across channels is greater than ever.’”

IT-Director.com: An Intelligent Match

“Buying rather than building speeds up the process of filling gaps in (or simply improving) functionality, and so is a logical step, and Experian itself has plenty of acquisition experience (including of course QAS itself). It opens up the intriguing possibility that Experian QAS may be looking in the future to spread its wings beyond its historically tight market of contact data management. If so then this may not be the last acquisition that it makes.”

AllBusiness: TSA “Secure Flight” Requirements

“Effective November 1, 2010, if you do not accurately provide the TSA with your full legal name as it appears on your government issued identification within 72 hours of a flight, your reservation could be canceled, at will, by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Why are they doing this?  To enhance the security of commercial air travel, the TSA has developed Secure Flight, a program that compares airline passenger information against U.S. government watch lists.”

InformationWeek: Top 10 Cloud Computing Complaints

“‘You need the ability to migrate data from one cloud service provider to another, and there are cloud interoperability scenarios that need to be addressed as well,’ notes Matt Edwards, director of the cloud services initiative at TM Forum, a communications industry association. ‘There are multiple things that need to be addressed to avoid vendor lock-in and to remove the barriers for the adoption of cloud services.’”

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[Post from Infoglide] The Not So Great Fortune 500 Enterprise

“Of the various types of crime involving fraud, individual cases of people scamming workers’ compensation garner the most publicity. The stories typically read like this: ‘Joe Blow was drawing workers’ comp while working as a personal trainer, and after he was caught on video, he had to pay back $9000 and received a five-year suspended jail sentence.’ While the human interest aspect of these stories, especially those including video of an injured worker involved in heavy physical activity, capture the most public attention, more organized activities impact the U.S. economy much more negatively.”

Cato Unbound: The Sky Isn’t Falling

“But a careful observer can detect the outlines of other intelligence successes based on surveillance in recent events. When David Headley was arrested for allegedly seeking to commit terrorist acts in Denmark, news reports suggested that one of the key factors in his identification was his pattern of travel to the Middle East and his efforts to conceal those trips from the government. Review of his travel both provided the trigger to ask questions and the factual cross-check on the veracity of his answers. Likewise, when Najibullah al-Zasi was arrested, one factor that was publicly disclosed as a ground for suspicion was surveillance of his travel to Pakistan.”

CIO: Healthcare Data Quality: Providing Better Patient Care

“Three things immediately jump to mind. The first is something very basic, but important: being able to identify a patient. Think of how many different ways might a patient’s name appear in a physician’s database. From misspellings to inconsistent middle name initial usage, multiple combinations of a name can lead to confusion. If healthcare providers don’t know who their patients are, how can they provide them with quality service?”

GovMonitor: Washington Cracks Down On Workers Compensation Fraud

“‘For every dollar Labor and Industries spends to combat fraud, we’ve seen an eight dollar return,’ Gregoire said. ‘By preventing and punishing fraud, we protect workers and honest businesses from unfair competition. Fraud in the workers’ compensation system hurts our economy – honest businesses are undercut by those that don’t fairly participate in the system and workers pay more than they should when others claim more benefits than they deserve.’”

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[Post from Infoglide] Reference Linking Methods - Part 2

“In the last post we discussed methods for linking references that I classified into the four categories of:

1. Direct matching
2. Transitive linking
3. Linking by association
4. Asserted Linking

In the last post the focus was on direct matching, which is what most people think of when the topic of entity resolution (ER) comes up.”

mySAnews: Refugees were pawns in fraud case

“They were investigating allegations that Abdirahman’s visitor, local pharmacist Marcelleus J. Anunobi, had been soliciting people for similar information that the agents say he used to commit up to $2.5 million in Medicaid fraud. Abdirahman is one of several people subpoenaed this week to testify in the case of Anunobi, who since 2007 owned the now-closed Advanced Doctor’s Prescribed Pharmacy on Medical Drive.”

The TSA Blog: Secure Flight: TSA Now Performing 100% Watchlist Matching for Domestic Flights

“What is watchlist matching? It’s when a passenger is prescreened using their name, date of birth and gender (that should match the information on their approved official government ID) against government watchlists for domestic and international flights. Actual names on the list are identified by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center as being people who may pose a known or suspected threat to aviation.”

Insurance & Financial Advisor: N.Y. State Insurance Fund issues annual report

“The NYSIF said it conducted 16,422 safety surveys and 2,228 safety training presentations for policyholders during the year. Its anti-fraud efforts  saved an estimated $16.6 million and led to 154 arrests, 1,246 investigations and 584 cases referred for prosecution.”

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By the Infoglide Team

Harvard Business Review: How Cloud Computing Can Transform Business

“Notwithstanding the fact that IT seems to always have the latest, greatest thing on its mind, cloud computing has the entire IT industry excited, with companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others investing billions of dollars in this new form of computing. And in terms of IT users, Gartner recently named cloud computing as the second most important technology focus area for 2010.”

timesunion.com: Medical fraud costs billions

“This past year, CMS paid approximately $60 billion to criminals impersonating doctors and patients in order to file false claims. Medicare and Medicaid fraud not only affects those covered by the insurance plan, but every single taxpayer nationwide, regardless of party affiliation, Murphy said.”

NYSIF: Husband, Wife Demolition Owners Arrested for Fraud

“Investigators said the business is engaged in roofing and demolition work, but that the DiNapolis allegedly misrepresented themselves as cleanup contractors for debris at demolition sites of other contractors. They allegedly also falsely gave their business location as upstate Jefferson, NY, rather than Kings Park, which further resulted in paying a lower workers’ comp. premium.”

Philadephia Inquirer: Area homeland security unit planned for S. Phila.

“The facility would also serve as a regional ‘fusion center‘ favored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Gillison said, with at least one federal intelligence analyst to coordinate street-level intelligence nationally and among 11 counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. It also would become headquarters for the Southeast Pennsylvania Regional Task Force, the five-county panel of emergency-response officials that coordinates antiterrorism and disaster efforts.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Insider Collusion

“Stories about financial services fraud are on the rise. Consider the recent article about an employee of a financial services company who had charges filed against him for conspiring to rig bids for investments in municipal bond projects…”

SafetyAtWorkBlog: OHS regulator reveals a blog about OHS fraud and crime

“For the last couple of months, Washington State’s Department of Labour & Industries has been running a blog written by its Fraud Prevention and Compliance Manager, Carl Hammersburg.  The blog matches the remit of the regulatory authority and covers a range of industrial enforcement actions.  Occasionally it has included its own video surveillance  of potential workers’ compensation fraudsters.”

Financial Fraud Law: Guilty Plea By Former Financial Services Employee In Muni Bond Bid-Rigging And Fraud Conspiracy

“According to court documents: Zaino engaged in a bid-rigging conspiracy from at least as early as October 2001 until March 2006.  As a part of the bid-rigging conspiracy, Zaino, acting as a broker of investment agreements, and co-conspirator providers designated in advance which co-conspirator provider would be the winning bidder for certain investment agreements brokered by Zaino’s employer.”

TravelDailyNews: ASTA works with TSA on secure flight compliance

“‘ASTA has and will continue to work closely with the TSA to notify members through member alerts and updates, of upcoming changes and deadlines that impact the travel agency community and the traveling public. We have, throughout the implementation period, met with TSA and provided updates and direction to our members regarding compliance,’  said ASTA President and Chair Chris Russo.”

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