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NAS (Network Analysis Server)
NAS is the SN-Sphere™ application server which provides analytical services Reveal , Consider, Contextor ™ and all other components of SN-Sphere. NAS services are also available to third party clients using web services. In addition to Network Pattern Analysis and Social Network Analysis executed by NAS and implemented in Reveal, NAS can currently execute several types of analysis: network link analysis, connectivity analysis and similarity analysis . Additional types of analysis are under development. Network Link Analysis Network link analysis uses LSI (Link Support Information) to infer links between entities in order to expose and analyze network associations. A network is composed of one or more types of entities such as people, organizations and financial organizations. Different LSI may be used for inferring links between the different combinations of entities. The following matrix is a simple illustration of this concept for an anti-money laundering (AML) application. The same principles can be applied for any application using various types of data. Each cell indicates examples of LSI which may be used for inferring links between specific types of entities. An AML application may analyze many types of entities using many sources of LSI.
A suspicious individual, company, account or other starting point (target) is chosen for analysis. The user may choose one or more types of LSI (Link Support Information) and define one or more relevant criteria for the analysis. For instance, a criterion for inferring links between two people based on monetary transfers might be that they both transferred money to the same third party within a certain period of time in amounts exceeding a particular threshold.
NAS uses the chosen criteria and LSI to infer links
between the target and other entities (first generation of direct
associations) as well as cross links between the members of that
generation. The system then continues a recursive analysis in which
further links are inferred between each of the entities in the first
generation and other entities, thus creating a second generation. The
process is continued for as many generations as the user has requested.
The end result is a network of entities: who is involved and how are they
related. The results can be displayed in a link chart and/or grid
format. Connectivity Analysis Connectivity analysis determines if a specific entity is related to another single entity or group of entities in some way even if the relationship is indirect through many degrees (generations) of separation. The system can find the shortest path of connectivity between the entities or all paths by which they are connected. NAS uses selected LSI for the analysis. Connectivity analysis can use all of the available link support information, only link that appear on previously saved link charts or only links on a single link chart. The result of the analysis is a new link chart displaying the requested connectivity. Similarity Analysis Similarity analysis determines if two specific entities or a list of entities are similar to each other and if so in what ways. Similarity is determined by: Comparison of entity attributes - such as for a person, attributes such as address, phone number, credit card, hair color, date of birth, SSN, etc. The degree of similarity can be calculated according to how closely the attributes match and based on multiple attributes Comparison of associated entities - For instance, credit cards which are suspected of having been used fraudulently could be considered similar if they were used at the same point of sale within a certain period of time. |
