Crime / Law

Recent Articles
Can big data be used to prevent crime from happening?

If you’ve seen the movie “Minority Report” — released back in 2002 — you know the premise is both unique and far-fetched. It is, after all, a science-fiction film littered with futuristic technology and unheard-of societal norms. Drugs, for example, are consumed via...

Big Data to prevent crime; cyber stop & frisk risk?

Even casual observers are well aware that Big Data is frequently used to create targeted ads, to recommend products for purchase by online shoppers, and to suggest connections on social networking sites. But people may not be aware that Big Data has become an...

How to fight claims fraud with big data?
How to fight claims fraud with big data?

In today's highly competitive marketplace, most insurance companies have already streamlined their operations to optimise cost structures. Commoditisation of markets and lower investment returns are keeping pressure on insurers to tightly manage expense ratios....

Data in crime fighting: Beyond Minority Report

When we discuss Big Data in crime fighting, the analogy of Minority Report, the 2002 Tom Cruise film, always comes up. This is the idea that it would be possible to predict who is going to commit a crime and when meaning that law enforcement can stop these crimes...

Can big data predict the next cyber attack?

The battle to secure private data, whether financial information or intellectual property, may be won through big data analysis. That, at any rate, is what Bob Griffin, cybersecurity firm RSA’s chief security architect, thinks. “The ability to take massive volumes of...

How Big Data Could Undo Our Civil-Rights Laws

Big Data will eradicate extreme world poverty by 2028, according to Bono, front man for the band U2. But it also allows unscrupulous marketers and financial institutions to prey on the poor. Big Data, collected from the neonatal monitors of premature babies, can...

Fighting tax fraud with big data

John F. Kennedy famously said "It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low," and with April 15 right around the corner, chances are your tax returns leave you hoping that everyone else is planning on paying their fair share...

Big data used to catch fraudulent tax returns
Big data used to catch fraudulent tax returns

Identity thieves are stealing billions of dollars a year through fraudulent tax refunds—and the IRS isn't the only target. The 43 states that collect an income tax are also being flooded with these bogus returns. How serious is the problem? A report from the Treasury...

Crime fighting with big data weapons

For Lombroso, a sloping forehead, large ears, very long arms and any one of a host of other physical characteristics pointed toward their owner's in-born propensity for a life lived on the wrong side of the law. If only it were that easy to spot the bad guys. Now, it...