Identity Resolution Daily

By Kevin Moore, Infoglide Software Director of Fraud Solution Sales

Several years ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published guidelines for creating fusion centers at the state, local, and federal levels. Since then, fusion centers have become a hot trend in the law enforcement community.  At last count, there were 72 designated centers around the country that are recognized by DHS (and that number is probably low by now). If governmental agencies with common concerns can band together to create fusion centers, it seems possible that private companies with common goals could use technologies such as identity resolution to achieve them.

Do businesses share common problems that could be better addressed by creation of “private fusion centers”? I thought of a few in a short time, so there are likely many more. It turns out that one called LERPnet already exists within the retail community:

The Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network (LERPnet) is a secure national database for the reporting of retail theft and serious incidents, which allows retailers to share information with each other and law enforcement. In response to an alarming rise in organized retail crime, the retail industry and the FBI have teamed up to launch LERPnet. With LERPnet, retailers and law enforcement will be able to fight back against illegal activity including organized retail crime, burglaries, robberies, counterfeiting, and online auction fraud.

The details are on the LERPnet web site. Clearly, it took a lot of effort to resolve some key issues before it was launched. Companies are understandably concerned about complying with privacy laws and want some assurance that they won’t assume liability should a breach occur. They also consider their customer information to be proprietary, so solutions need to share only data about suspected fraud cases while leaving good customer data unshared. In many cases, scores instead of data can be shared. The general principle is to leave data in place as much as possible and don’t share proprietary data with others.

The LERPnet example could be classified as a “quasi-private” system since the participants include law enforcement agencies. What about your industry? Are there ways that well-protected information sharing could enable your company to avoid “doing business with people that, if they had a full view of that person, they would never even let them in the door”?

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By the Infoglide Team

4RSS: Infoglide Launches Anti-Fraud Solution Suite

“To help organizations comply with privacy laws, the Anti-Fraud Solution Suite can be configured to return only the calculated probability of a match, instead of the actual data associated with that match, or can return only partial data depending on the authorization level and country of the end user. ‘Many companies don’t realize they already have the data to solve the puzzle,’ said Mike Betron, director of marketing. ‘They are doing business with people that, if they had a full view of that person, they would never even let them in the door. But their fraud operations are segmented, and their data is dispersed throughout the organization. One hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. One line of business is about to sign a customer that is committing fraud to another line of business. Major financial institutions are losing millions of dollars because they don’t have a clear picture of their customers, vendors, partners, and employees.’”

backupify: 8 Ways Cloud Computing Will Help Your Company Scale Faster

“Cloud computing, sometimes known as software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the driving force of the Web 2.0 revolution. Small businesses are faced with the challenge of growing fast while staying lean and efficient. Most are constrained by financials, leaving them high and dry if they don’t know how to scale with a limited budget. Thankfully for them, cloud computing brings them powerful benefits to grow with little to no capital outlay.”

Tennessee Opinion: We all share duty for security

“After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, a number of comprehensive reviews of why the attack happened and why we were not prepared were conducted. Deficiencies and gaps identified by the 9/11 Commission appointed by the president stressed the importance of state and local law enforcement in sharing information and intelligence relative to terrorist activity. As a result, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice encouraged states to develop fusion centers. A fusion center is a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise and information with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, investigate and respond to criminal and terrorism activity.”

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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 Mike Shultz, Infoglide Software CEO

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?

We’ve written recently about the availability of vast data resources, including surface web, dark web, and social media sources. Surface web sources include all the information readily available to search engines. Dark web sources are those available over the internet that require password or other special access, such as local, state, and federal government databases. And of course, an incredible amount of detailed information is contributed on social networking sites by individuals about themselves, families, friends, and colleagues.

It’s feasible to reduce the likelihood of crimes like the one above using available data and technology. Given a few attributes about the murderer, identity resolution could have “similarity searched” the man’s identity against a multitude of online sources and provided a picture of his history and associations. The technology exists to enable people to know who they’re dealing with, no matter the social or business context. Maybe it’s time to use it.

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By the Infoglide Team

NY Post: Deli clerk tried to scam Lotto winner out of $14M

“McCassell gave the ticket to a clerk — but when the clerk scanned it, he ‘told him that it wasn’t a big winner,’ New York Lottery Director Gordon Medenica said. When McCassell asked for the ticket back, the clerk told him ‘he had lost the ticket,’ Medenica said. ‘The clerk said, ‘I already threw it away.””

CivSource: New report urges state and local governments to be strategic about analytics tools

“‘State government cannot afford redundant and disconnected investment — even in the best of times. And right now, we’re in the worst of times,’ he said in a statement. According to the INPUT report, released earlier this year, the market for state and local BI / audit and recovery (A&R) technologies will increase at an annual growth rate of 7.6 percent, topping out at over a billion dollars in 2014. Cumulatively, INPUT believes states will invest $600 million in A&R solutions, and $225 million in BI and prevention solutions in 2010 for the five biggest federal benefits programs.”

MassDevice: Clinical Science coughs up $525,000 to settle Medicaid fraud allegations

“‘We will continue to work with our state and federal partners to police abuse of the program that so many people depend on,’ Coakley said in prepared remarks. Over the last three years, Coakley’s Medicaid fraud division has recovered approximately $125 million for the state Medicaid program, according to the AG’s office.”

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[Post from Infoglide] Making Systems Smarter

“Several years ago, identity resolution  was almost exclusively tied to detecting fraud. Over time, the ‘identity’ of identity resolution has continued to evolve and broaden. Many areas of commerce are discovering that efficiency can be improved dramatically when you have a clear picture of the individuals you’re dealing with and their social network. Of course, identity resolution is not the only way to gain that efficiency.”

Workers’ Compensation: Facebook Makes an Appearance in Workers’ Compensation Court

“In a recently published article, Law School Professor Gregory M. Duhl and attorney Jaclyn S. Millner, focus on the issues of professional responsibility, discovery, privacy and evidence when social networking factors integrate with a workers’s compensation proceeding. Since the compensation system is theoretically no-fault and the evidentiary system is informal, the authors theorize that the workers’ compensation arena will act as a fertile ground for experimentation in the legal application of this new technology.”

MassDevice: Clinical Science coughs up $525,000 to settle Medicaid fraud allegations

“‘We will continue to work with our state and federal partners to police abuse of the program that so many people depend on,’ Coakley said in prepared remarks. Over the last three years, Coakley’s Medicaid fraud division has recovered approximately $125 million for the state Medicaid program, according to the AG’s office.”

The 33: TSA demands more information from air travelers

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By Mike Betron, Infoglide Director of Marketing

Several years ago, identity resolution was almost exclusively tied to detecting fraud. Over time, the “identity” of identity resolution has continued to evolve and broaden. Many areas of commerce are discovering that efficiency can be improved dramatically when you have a clear picture of the individuals you’re dealing with and their social network.

Of course, identity resolution is not the only way to gain that efficiency. Another method, called preference profiling, self-learns by monitoring the actions of an individual or client. One example is Google News. The kind of preference profiling that Google captures and saves, for instance, is based on my behavior. That information is then used to improve my online experience and make better use of my time by employing search techniques that “know” what topics I’m interested in based on my past behavior. In my case, for example, Google News is more likely serve up sports stories than fashion articles when I ask for the latest news.

For the most part, preference profiling and other techniques besides identity resolution operate on the premise that individuals will continue to act as they have acted in the past. If this weren’t true, companies like Google wouldn’t be in business, but we’re discovering the limitations of working only with historical data. Sometimes people change and sometimes they aren’t forthcoming about their associations for various reasons.

Commercial systems, including those employed in financial services industries, are becoming “smarter.” By incorporating identity resolution technology, they enhance existing historical data systems with information drawn from a wide variety of dynamic data sources (e.g., social media). Providing a real-time “360 view” of an individual and his/her associations is improving daily business decisions at many leading companies.

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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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By Douglas Wood, Infoglide Senior Vice President

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.

For most companies, the data to identify and catch fraudsters already exists within the organization; however, because data is distributed across various data silos in different countries, resolving identities and non-obvious relationships requires rapidly accessing multiple data sources with different structures and access methods.

Consider then the requirement to comply with data privacy laws, which make it essential that the analyst returns only the calculated probability of a match in a foreign database, instead of the actual data associated with that match.  Businesses have spent massive amounts of money trying to tip-toe through the minefield of privacy laws and acceptable practices.  Determining “who’s who” and “who’s working with whom” has proven difficult where data privacy laws prohibit individual analysts from ‘seeing’ the results of a search into a database in another country.

Infoglide’s Identity Resolution Engine is uniquely capable of solving these requirements by searching into disparate data – irrespective of where it resides – and returning only the percentage likelihood that a match or relationship was found.  The software then returns contact information of the appropriate data steward, if desired.

Taking the weight of data privacy concerns off analysts increases productivity and helps them focus on the cases that truly matter to your organization.  For more information, contact sales@infoglide.com.

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