Analytics and visual investigation hold the key to tackling the changing terrorist threats, writes Nick Feast, Fraud and Financial Crime Specialist EMEA and AP, at the data and analytics firm SAS.
It’s becoming all too common an occurrence to see coverage of a terror attack rolling on the news. No matter how many times it happens, the effect is always the same – it leaves us feeling vulnerable and uncertain, and concerned about when and where it could happen again.
Worse, the methods of terrorism are gradually becoming more low-tech, with many extremists now favouring vehicles as their weapon. That makes it much harder for counter-terror operatives to detect plots in progress, as a vehicle-based attack takes little organisation or communication, and presents fewer touchpoints for investigation. As a result, police need to be able to focus on the parts of the process that are still detectable. Despite reassurances that the authorities are doing all they can, the fact is that terror attacks still happen. With that in mind, we need to answer the question: how can we improve the movement and quality of relevant data to help police counter terrorist activity?
Banks
Financial information has informed a number of previous counterterrorism investigations by providing a better understanding of people’s movements and activities, as well as highlighting vital links between individual extremists. This information is often the key to agencies identifying and arresting additional members of a terror cell post-attack, after quickly revealing to investigators that they’re dealing with more than just an individual terrorist. Financial data relating to individuals and their transactions, if used properly, can significantly increase the intelligence landscape, and as such should be regarded as a highly valuable commodity in the fight against terror.
But if you think the task of identifying terrorist activity is the sole responsibility of the government or security services, think again. Banking organisations have a huge role to play because unlike law enforcement and security services, they have direct access to a rich data set for a large portion of the population. Financial institutions should understand the power of their data to help identify terrorist cells and extremists and use it wherever possible to counter terror.
Despite facing increasing pressure from regulators to report suspected links to terrorism, financial institutions are focusing much of their current efforts on counterterrorism financing (CTF) and other approaches that dominate anti-money laundering discussions, such as transaction monitoring and sanctions screening. While these efforts can help to identify certain risks, they tend to be reactive in nature and therefore offer little in the way of prevention. They are also limited to only finding individuals who are either on sanctions lists or whose transactional activity hits certain markers or thresholds. What about those who don’t appear on the lists or pass the transactional activity thresholds?
Despite wanting to improve detection, many investigative teams are understaffed, with little understanding of where to look or exactly what to look for. Even if they do find something of interest, interpreting it correctly is not always straightforward. Although data is key to threat identification, poor data quality and complex data silos often hinder organisations, making detection time-consuming, confusing and perhaps even unachievable.
Banking organisations have a huge role to play because unlike law enforcement and security services, they have direct access to a rich data set for a large portion of the population. Financial institutions should understand the power of their data to help identify terrorist cells and extremists and use it wherever possible.
Changing our approach
To effectively counter terror, it’s time for investigative teams to discover what they can do with the data they already have – just by applying a slightly different approach or a fresh perspective. Your organisation can take several steps to quickly change to proactive detection to counter terror:
Train investigators. Investigators must know how to identify signs of increasing individual risk levels. Changing risk profile indications are clear – you just need to know what to look for.
Broaden the focus. Organisations must widen efforts to look at individual terrorists rather than purely concentrating on CTF and the movement of money in and out of high-risk countries or jurisdictions. You can’t link all extremists to a flow of money, and the task of identifying these individuals cannot be ignored.
Improve access to data. Invest in a system that helps investigators access and combine data from disparate sources into a single platform. One that facilitates analysis and provides powerful visualisations for better understanding the links between different individuals and their transactional activities.
Increase the potential for detection. Couple advanced analytics with deep domain knowledge and automated alerts to become more efficient at identifying threats while also having more time for actual investigation. Organisations already have access to the relevant information, but are weighed down by manual processes, so implementing a solution that finds the threats for you would be the logical next step.
Terror is still a major concern in the UK. As such, it’s highly likely that the government will move to increase regulation and require financial institutions to do more with the data they hold that could aid counter-terror operations. With that in mind, banks need to make sure that they have effective control over their data and can identify potentially dangerous behaviour. An effective counter-terror analytics function in a bank could help bring the next plot to light – and save lives in the process.
