IBM Corp. spinout Senzing Inc. is launching what it calls the world’s first “entity resolution” software for fraud detection that uses artificial intelligence to detect bad actors accessing corporate data.

Senzing’s bad guy hunting software is designed to identify “bad actors” who have managed to gain unauthorized access to company data in an attempt to commit fraud.

The company is led by former IBM Fellow Jeff Jonas (pictured), who serves as its chief executive officer and chief scientist and has more than two decades of experience in helping organizations to understand fraud and catch criminals.

“The effects of financial fraud and insider threat are staggering, despite the billions of dollars companies spend each year to detect and prevent it,” Jonas said.

Senzing attempts to do that by plugging into existing corporate networks and using something called “entity-centric learning” to try to identify who is accessing data in real-time. The software works by identifying users and their nonobvious interrelationships with companies, in order to root out people who may have malicious motivations.

“Clever bad actors do not use their correct name, address or phone number on every transaction — only idiots would do that,” Jonas told SiliconANGLE. Instead, smart hackers employ a method called channel separation that involves using different names and so on for each interaction they make to try to confuse security systems.

“To catch clever bad guys, one must be able to perform ‘channel consolidation,’ and this is what entity-centric learning is all about,” Jonas said.

The software also incorporates “privacy by design” principles to try and prevent intrusions before they happen. These principles relate to making systems more accountable to oversight functions, while others are designed to reduce the risk of unintended disclosure, Jonas said.

In addition to detecting fraud and insider threats, Senzing can help customers facilitate anti-money-laundering and “know your customer” requirements. It also assists law enforcement agencies with their investigations into fraud, helping establish whom the bad actors are and the actions they have taken. It also helps organizations to perform background checks on their employees, while helping manufacturing firms to monitor supply chain risks, the company said.

Senzing said its platform is available now as a plug-and-play module, with pricing starting at $36,600 per year for a production license.

Jonas talked to theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s video studio, at the company’s launch in January:

Image: Jeff Jonas/Twitter