Identity Resolution Daily

[Post from Infoglide] The Human Element in Identity Resolution

We’ve written quite a few posts here on the subject of identity resolution’s application to a broad range of problems that include terrorism, insurance fraud, crime, lottery fraud, sexual predators, workers comp employer fraud, and retail returns fraud. What we haven’t discussed very much is the relationship between the technology and the human beings that employ it.

Boston Globe: Woman to be sentenced in asbestos case

“Deleon ‘cheated the system’ in two ways to enrich herself, according to the government’s case. Under her ownership, Environmental Compliance Training issued false asbestos removal training certificates and lied about it to the state. She also evaded payroll taxes and workers’ compensation insurance premiums by paying hundreds of employees of Methuen Abatement Staffing under the table. The company had a gross unreported payroll of $4.6 million from 2002 to 2006, according to a government document introduced at the trial.”

New Mexico Independent: Homeland security ‘fusion centers’ are working, but concerns abound

“The federal assessment of the nation’s fusion centers — which borrows heavily from earlier reports by such internal watchdogs as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and General Accountability Office (GAO) — lists a few privacy, transparency and oversight concerns about the fusion centers.

Wall Street Journal: Tips for TSA to Make Flying Safer, Easier

“Some experts suggest that the TSA cut back on the air marshal program, which puts law-enforcement agents on some flights, and shift spending to more effective security measures. Experts also want to see major changes in the current Registered Traveler program to further speed up security procedures for frequent travelers and focus resources on travelers who haven’t undergone background checks. They also want to see more variation to today’s predictable screening so bad guys don’t know exactly how to circumvent security.”

Gartner: Can “single view” of master data be achieved without an MDM technology?

[Andrew White] “Certainly users have been trying to achieve ’single view’ for many years, before the phrase master data management was coined.  The problem of trying to maintain a semantically consistent definition of master data across the business has been a long standing desire for most firms.  It is because business (and to a great extend, IT also) has grown to be so complex, that since 2000 many firms have begun to look to specific tools to help.”

WorkersCompensation.com: Chenango Man Charged As Fraud In Fish Story

“Investigators from NYSIF’s Division of Confidential Investigations said Mr. Panus was receiving workers’ compensation payments for a work-related back injury that occurred in 1988. The investigation, conducted in cooperation with the New York State Insurance Department Frauds Bureau and the Office of the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Inspector General, found that Mr. Panus was allegedly self-employed as the owner of Ponderosa Fish Farm while receiving benefits totaling $66,100.”

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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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By the Infoglide Team

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.                                                  – W. Clement Stone

We recently shared a link to an article describing how trucking companies in California illegally mislabeled their drivers as “independent contractors” in order to keep from paying workers’ compensation insurance. The law clearly defines the drivers as “employees” since the companies own the trucks and define everything the drivers do.

Because identity resolution software is often used to detect fraudulent behavior, we continually hear of instances like this one where people try to cut corners or take unfair advantage or flat out cheat other people and companies in ways that often involve obscuring identity information. People try to game software systems and cheat in areas like workers’ compensation, online commerce, lotteries, retail, airlines, insurance, social networking, and others. (You can read more on our web site and in previous blog posts here.)

Almost all of us know the right way and the wrong way to do things. Sadly, we sometimes choose to ignore that inner voice when it benefits us, even though it may harm someone else. OK, so we can’t fix the world with a blog post, but it’s hard not to speculate what the world might be like if we all tried to do the right thing all the time.

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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

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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[Post from Infoglide] A Commitment to Solutions: What Harvard is Doing to Address Crime on MySpace and Other Social Web Sites

“Last week we focused on the issue of cybercrimes against children and how technology can play a role in preventing the victimization of young people on the Internet. One organization that is very much aware of the impact technology can have is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.”

PogoWasRight.org: AU: Google Street View told: keep off, private

“Privacy activists and individuals have accused Google of deceiving the public by breaking its promises only to photograph public roads for its Street View mapping tool and to promptly remove images flagged as inappropriate.”

Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds: Bills Introduced to Combat Organized Crime on Auction Sites

“Criminals often lure people to do their dirty work, also. Recruits are normally harvested off the Internet, sometimes from job sites, and offered work to reship stolen merchandise and or launder money from fraudulent transactions. . . . A lot of criminal activity is facilitated on auction sites by what is known as phishing. Phishing is where an account owner is tricked into giving up their account details, either via social engineering, or more and more often, after downloading some malicious sofware. The stolen account details are then used to take-over the account and use it for illicit purposes. In fact, eBay and PayPal accounts are frequently the most phished brands out there. . . . There is little doubt that a lot of the criminal activity on auction sites is sophisticated and reeks of organized crime.”

Google Public Policy Blog: Keeping kids safe in a digital world

“Technology is an invaluable tool for addressing some of these challenges. . . . When it comes to keeping kids safe on the Internet, we believe that education for families, support for law enforcement, and empowering technology tools, like our SafeSearch filter and the NCMEC software, are all critical pieces of the puzzle.”

Evolution of Security: Answers to Your Top 10 Questions

“Here are the top ten questions we received from our recent request. We tallied the number of times we received each question or a similar version of it and noted the total for each question below.”

PogoWasRight.org: UK: Airport fingerprint plan sparks a domestic dispute

“Human rights and data protection organisations have criticised Government plans to introduce fingerprinting at all British airports where departure lounges are shared by international and domestic travellers.”

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By Douglas Wood, Infoglide Senior Vice President

Last week we focused on the issue of cybercrimes against children and how technology can play a role in preventing the victimization of young people on the Internet. One organization that is very much aware of the impact technology can have is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

The Berkman Center’s mission is to explore and understand cyberspace; to study its development, dynamics, norms, and standards; and to assess the need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions.

The center was established to study cyberspace through active research, and they address a variety of relevant issues including content control, governance, privacy, intellectual property, and electronic commerce.

One of their programs is the Internet Safety Technical Task Force Technical Advisory Board, whose objective is “to evaluate and assess the range of technologies that may be used to promote children’s safety on the Internet.” The Technical Advisory Board (TAB) brings together corporations and academic institutions to address real-world issues with real-world solutions. Members of the TAB include representatives from MIT, Dartmouth, Twistbox, Bank of America, and, naturally, Harvard.

Created in February of this year, TAB is tasked with identifying “effective online safety tools and technologies that can be used by many companies across multiple platforms.” They review technologies based on standardized submissions from individuals, companies, and organizations and prepare quarterly and year-end reports with their findings. The types of technologies include identification, authentication, search, filtering, blocking, age verification, labeling, rating, and forensics. TAB is looking for technologies that accomplish one or more of the following:

• Limit harmful contact between adults and minors
• Limit harmful contact between minors
• Limit/prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet
• Limit/prevent minors from creating inappropriate content on the Internet
• Limit the availability of illegal content on the Internet
• Prevent minors from accessing particular sites without parental consent
• Prevent harassment, unwanted solicitation, and bullying of minors on the Internet

As I mentioned in my previous post, identity resolution technologies can protect children by limiting harmful contact between adults and minors; preventing harassment, unwanted solicitation, and bullying of minors on the Internet; and preventing known sex offenders from accessing social network sites, even through attempts to mask their identities. For our part, we’ve submitted our technology for review by TAB, and we look forward to their evaluation.

It’s clear that protecting children from Internet predators is a cause that we can all get behind. We applaud Harvard and the TAB for taking steps to address this problem.

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[Post from Infoglide] An Obligation to Protect: Crime on MySpace and Other Social Web Sites

“It’s an almost unbelievable story. Or maybe I should say, as a parent, I’d like not to believe that this sort of thing happens. Unfortunately, it does all too often. By now, you’ve probably heard the story of Brooke Bennett who was found murdered after being abducted by her uncle, Michael Jacques.”

chicagotribune.com: Smash, grab, then sell on Web

“Craig Sherman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said selling online can boost the thieves’ profits. ‘When a thief sells something on a traditional street corner or pawnshop, he might get 30 cents on the dollar,’ Sherman said. ‘But if he sells it online, he gets as much as 70 percent on the value.’”

FOXNews.com: Homeland Security Dept. to Tell Employees of Heightened Alert Period

“The Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympic Games, presidential nominating conventions in August and September, Nov. 4 elections and transition to a new administration pose opportunities for terrorists to attack. Drafts of the heightened alert document were circulated in the past few weeks, and a final document is expected soon.”

The Bunker Blog: Employee Theft Increasing By 15%

“Most experts agree that approximately 30% of employees steal from their employers. 75% of those do it repeatedly. The average time it takes to catch an employee who steals is 18 months. . . . There is a lot at stake. $22 billion dollars is an astonomical figure that most of us can’t even really grasp. However, we can grasp our own losses, and we all know that those losses cost us dearly in profits.”

Evolution of Security: Leave your shoes on?

“Wouldn’t it be great to show up at a checkpoint and just when you were reaching down to untie your shoes, you heard an officer say ‘You can leave your shoes on.’”

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