[iwar] [fc:Tracking.Terrorists.the.Las.Vegas.Way]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-10 08:32:40
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:U.S..Military.Computers.Recovered,.Suspect.Held]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:"E-bomb".may.see.first.combat.use.in.Iraq]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Message-Id: <200208101532.g7AFWev02836@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 08:32:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Tracking.Terrorists.the.Las.Vegas.Way]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Tracking Terrorists the Las Vegas Way
<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,103692,00.asp">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,103692,00.asp>

CIA-funded firm uses techniques for catching gambling cheaters to help
government identify terrorists.


PCWorld.com
Wednesday, August 07, 2002

LAS VEGAS--It might not seem that gambling sharks and Al Qaeda
terrorists have much in common. But a firm here that helps casinos catch
cheaters is now using its software to help the government track people
suspected of being terrorists.

Jeff Jonas, founder and chief scientist of Systems Research and
Development, offered a glimpse of his company's NORA (Non-Obvious
Relationship Awareness) technology at the recent Black Hat security
conference.

NORA could just as well be called In Search of Kevin Bacon, as it
crunches data to find the six degrees of separation that folklorists say
connect all people in the world. SRD designed the program to catch card
counters and other cheaters at casino gaming tables, and to detect
collusion between corrupt dealers and gamblers.

Fuzzy Logic

The version of the software used by casinos can use face recognition to
quickly match a surveillance-camera image with a database of known
cheaters. It also uses fuzzy logic to help detect less obvious
relationships between casino personnel and known cheaters who appear on
the Nevada Gaming Commission's blacklist, by comparing and
cross-checking employee data on resumes and company applications.

NORA evaluates information such as names, addresses, social security and
credit card numbers, and emergency contact numbers in company records,
searching for similarities among employees and cheaters. Companies can
also get data from firms like Choicepoint that aggregate information
such as driver's license and vehicle registration information, land deed
records, and credit histories.

For instance, NORA might reveal that a dealer was once married to a
woman whose maiden name matches the surname of a suspected cheater,
raising the possibility that the dealer and the cheater were once
in-laws.

Jonas cautions that such data alone doesn't establish guilt. Still, it
could help investigators optimize their surveillance resources by homing
in on the likeliest possible suspects.

Investigators first funnel raw data through a clean-up process to
reconcile conflicting information. For instance, someone named Francis
George might appear on one list with an address at 224 Washington Street
and on another list as George Francis at the same address or as Frank
George at 242 Washington Street.

NORA looks for all permutations of a name or address to identify a
possible alias, to reconcile mistakes in data entry, and to deliberate
attempts to alter data. Something as simple as transposed numbers or
misspelled street names, for example, could throw a standard background
check off track.

Government Potential

NORA's analytical capabilities could prove useful to government
intelligence agencies trying to ferret out terrorist cells entrenched in
communities.

U.S. intelligence agencies endured criticism following reports that
information on terrorists was not properly analyzed or disseminated
before September 11. The government amassed a large amount of data, but
was slow to process and analyze it.

"Many organizations have applications that hold a lot of data," says
chief executive officer John Slitz of SRD. "But these applications don't
accept a query, so you can't analyze the data." NORA creates a data
warehouse for storing information where users can quickly add new
information and cross-check it with other entries.

The FBI could cross-check lists of Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at the
Guantanamo Bay naval base, or trace relationships among suspected
terrorists being held in the United States.

Likewise, the FBI could quickly check airline passenger lists to
determine whether a suspect at a Cleveland airport is the nephew of a
known Egyptian terrorist, once shared an address with another terrorist
suspect in Germany, or uses the same credit card or bank account number
as a suspect in Texas. NORA analyzes data in near real-time, returning
query results in about 8 seconds, according to Slitz.

The program collects data from the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List as
well as from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control.
The Most Wanted Terrorist List compiles names of individuals and
organizations considered a threat to the United States, including
terrorists and drug traffickers.

SRD itself is backed by the CIA's venture-capital firm In-Q-Tel, which
invests in companies that develop products useful to intelligence
operations.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
4 DVDs Free +s&p Join Now
http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/Ey.GAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:U.S..Military.Computers.Recovered,.Suspect.Held]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:"E-bomb".may.see.first.combat.use.in.Iraq]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2002-10-01 06:44:32 PDT