Graphs in Government

Graphs in Government
Dr. Jim Webber

Chief Scientist, Neo4j

Agenda
• Quick intro to Neo4j use cases & graph databases
• Digitization of Government
• Money Laundering
• Law Enforcement
• Security
• E-government
• Summary

Look at this data
Element Depends On
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30 seconds to tell me…
…what if J fails?
Element Depends On
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Identifying Graph Problems
If your business problem has a lot of dependencies -
JOINs between different entities - and if solving for
these dependencies in real time is important to you,
then your problem is probably easiest solved with graph
technology.
It is a 
GRAPH PROBLEM.

Introduction to Neo4j Use Cases

NEO4J USE CASES
Real Time Recommendations
Master Data Management
Fraud Detection
Identity & Access Management
Graph Based Search

NEO4J USE CASES
VIEWED
GRAPH THINKING:
VIEWED
BOUGHT
VIEWED
BOUGHT
BOUGHT
BOUGHT
BOUGHT
Fraud Detection
Graph Based Search

NEO4J USE CASES GRAPH THINKING:
Geo-Social Networks
NEAR
NEAR
VISITED
NEAR
MANAGES
VISITED
NEAR
Fraud Detection
Graph Based Search
Pandemic Tracking
VISITED
VISITED
VISITED
VISITED
VISITED

NEO4J USE CASES GRAPH THINKING:
MANAGES
MANAGES
LEADS
REGION
M
ANAG
ES
MANAGES
REGION
LEADS
LEADS
COLLABORATES
Fraud Detection
Graph Based Search

NEO4J USE CASES
O
PENED_ACCO
UNT
HAS
IS_ISSUED
GRAPH THINKING:
Fraud Detection
HAS
LIVES
LIVES
IS_ISSUED
OPENED_ACCOUNT
Fraud Detection
Graph Based Search

GRAPH THINKING:
Graph Based Search
PUBLISH
INCLUDE
INCLUDE
CREATE
CAPTURE
IN
IN
SOURCE
USES
USES
IN
IN
USES
NEO4J USE CASES
SOURCE
SOURCE
Fraud Detection
Graph Based Search

NEO4J USE CASES
Fraud Detection
Graph Based Search
GRAPH THINKING:
Identity And Access Management
TRUSTS
TRUSTS
ID
ID
AUTHENTICATES
AUTHENTICATES
O
W
NS
OWNS
CAN_READ

How governments could make their citizens
more secure, build better services, and make
functions more efﬁcient by using
connections in data.
The Use of Graph Databases in Government

How governments could make their country
more secure, build better services, and make
government functions more efﬁcient by
leveraging connections in data.
The Use of Graph Databases in Government

Law Enforcement
Anti-Money
Laundering Security E-Government
Examples

Money Laundering & Tax Evasion
Funds “traveling” across a network
of parties is highly complex
Requires a technology that analyzes
connections in data (often even in real-time)
Billions of dollars are
lost every year

Withdraw
Use Case:
Modeling Money
Laundering as
Graphs
Neo4j is used to combat
advanced money laundering
schemes. Money laundering is all
about how funds travel across a
network of parties. Without graph
analysis capabilities, some of
these patterns can be impossible
to detect.
Wash in complex series of transfers
Money Laundering
Deposit

The Cali Cartel
Money
Laundering
Scheme
Money Laundering

Source: http://neo4j.com/blog/analyzing-panama-papers-neo4j/
Case Study:
“The Panama
Papers”
• The International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists (ICIJ) exposed highly connected
networks of offshore tax structures used by
the world’s richest elites.
• With 11.5 million documents, it’s the largest
ﬁnancial leak of all time.
• The unfolded connections in “The Panama
Papers” was a major news story 2016.
Money Laundering

• How transactions occur and how money moves between
assets, companies and people is highly connected.
• Neo4j is used by major banks for asset-modeling,
entitlement programs and fraud detection.
• Neo4j is used to combat advanced money laundering
schemes. Money laundering is all about how funds travel
across a network of parties. Without graph analysis
capabilities, some of these patterns can be impossible to
detect.
The Use of Connected Analysis
And Graph Databases Within
FinGov
Money Laundering

Challenges within Law Enforcement
Information is often stored in many different databases, with no
easy way of search and access it.
LE-agents need to access several different databases to gather
information on a single suspect or a location of interest.
Huge disadvantage not to have the connections
between datapoints readily apparent

Law Enforcement
Use Case:
Information and Data
Synchronization in
Law Enforcement
Law Enforcement Agencies use
Neo4j to model the information
into graphs to improve
efficiency and make direct and
implicit patterns readily
apparent in real time.
A suspect often appears in several
different databases
Financial recordsConvictions
Adresses
Vehicles
Trafﬁc cameras
Arrests
Police Reports
Agency Records Public Records Traﬃc Records
Appears_in
Has
Has
Has
Owns Registered
SUSPECT
Has

Bystander investigated
due to deep connection found
Use Case:
Modeling Graphs
in Investigations
Neo4j is used by LE to track all
parts of criminal investigations,
including witnesses, suspects,
forensic evidence, and
locations. All related directly
and indirectly.
Law Enforcement

ACCOUNT
HOLDER 2
ACCOUNT
HOLDER 1
ACCOUNT
HOLDER 3
CREDIT
CARD
BANK
ACCOUNT
BANK
ACCOUNT
BANK
ACCOUNT
ADDRESS
PHONE
NUMBER
PHONE
NUMBER
SSN 2
UNSECURED
LOAN
SSN 2
UNSECURED
LOAN
Law Enforcement
Use Case:
Modeling Fraud
Rings as Graphs
Organizing a fraud ring in the real
world is relatively simple. A group of
people share their personal
information to create synthetic
identities. For example with just 2
individuals sharing names and
social security numbers can create
4 different identities. This can be
discovered with connected analysis.

INVESTIGATE
Revolving Debt
Number of Accounts
INVESTIGATE
Normal behavior
Fraud Detection With Discrete Analysis

Revolving Debt
Number of Accounts
Normal behavior
Fraud Detection With Connected Analysis
Fraudulent pattern

Augmented Fraud Detection
Endpoint-Centric
Analysis of users and
their end-points
Navigation Centric
Analysis of
navigation behavior
and suspect patterns
Account-Centric
Analysis of anomaly
behavior by channel
DISCRETE ANALYSIS
1. 2. 3.
Cross Channel
Analysis of anomaly
behavior correlated
across channels
4.
Entity Linking
Analysis of relationships
to detect organized
crime and collusion
5.
CONNECTED ANALYSIS

• Neo4j is used by Law Enforcement Agencies to track all
parts of criminal investigations, including witnesses,
suspects, forensic evidence, and locations.
• Criminal investigations considers patterns and data that are
both directly and indirectly related, which is a perfect ﬁt for
graphs.
• Law enforcement agents often need to access numerous
databases and reports to gather information about a single
suspect, which isn’t very effective.
How Law Enforcement
Investigations Are a Perfect Fit
for Graphs Databases
Law Enforcement

Intelligence ofﬁcers need to extract insights from connections
within massive-scale data sets, often of various types data
Decisions often need to be made in real-time
Disparate types of data (i.e. people, locations) requires high ﬂexibility
The sensitivity of the data requires complex structures of
entitlement and access between individuals and agencies.
Challenges within Security

Border Control
Anti-terrorism & Security
Cyber Crimes
Graphs in Intelligence
and Security
Several countries use Neo4j for real-time and
analytical capabilities in relation to customs and
border enforcement.
Security and intelligence is the practice of
extracting insights from massive-scale data, often
from various data-sources and in real-time. Deep
search is crucial when dealing with complex
situations with many people, such as smuggling,
trafﬁcking, and port-of-entry ingress/egress.
Typical use cases:
Security

Event date
Country
Name
Origin
Destination
Date
Photo
Name
DOB
Photo
Name
DOB
Nationality
Origin
Country
Person left country near
time of incident!
Example of
Connections
Between Different
Domains
Security

• Statistical analysis (e.g. how often do suspects have
at least one close relative who is a felon?)
• Data clustering (e.g. build groupings of people based
on how they relate across case material)
Master Data
• Case data
• Investigations
• Customs & border data
• National security intel
Transactional Data
• Incarcerations
• Traffic stops
Metadata
• Access control and
auditing of case
access
Structured
• Case & conviction data
• Customs & border control data
• Census & tax data
Real Time
• Customs & border control
• Field & case work
• Financial crime investigations
• Computer-managed enforcement (e.g.
traffic cameras)
Batch
• Statistical analysis (e.g. how often do suspects
have at least one close relative who is a felon?)
• Data clustering (e.g. how people relate across
case material)
Unstructured
• Forensic images and mugshots
• Interrogation audio recordings
• Scanned and foreign-language
documents
Security
Security & Law
Enforcement
Data Canvas
• Flexible to change
• Scalable to many problems
• Intuitive to understand
• Instantly responsive

E-Government
Infrastructure Maintenance
Health Care
Social Services
The Graphs in
E-Gov are
Everywhere!

Provincial Parks
Border Control Environment
Retirement
Trade
Federal Taxes
Citizen &
Immigration
Federal Provincial Parks
High Ways Energy
Licences
Birth CertificatesHealth Care
Election
Provincial
City Roads
Social Services
City Election
City Recycling
City Parks
Law Enforcement
City
City Schools

Challenges within E-Government
Inconsistency of records
Legacy technology – expensive
and time consuming to maintain
Lack of efﬁciency

Use Case:
Synergies in Record
Keeping
E-Government
2011 2014 2013 2016
Personal Records Keeping
(Separate Databases For Each Application)
Local Income TaxTrafﬁc Services Education Health Care
Name
Adress
SS#
Email
Phone#
Name
Adress
SS#
Email
Phone#
Name
Adress
SS#
Email
Phone#
Name
Adress
SS#
Email
Phone#
Government Services

Local Income TaxTrafﬁc Services Education Health Care
E-Government
Better Services
More Consistency
Saves Time
Coordinates efforts
MARRIED_TO
LIVES_AT
LIVES_AT
FATHER_OF
ENROLLED_IN
OWNS
OWNS
OWN
SS#
PHONE
EMAIL
HAS
HAS
HAS
MOTHER_OF
SS#
PHONE
EMAIL
HAS
HAS
HAS

How Graphs Are Used to
Improve Government
Services
• Neo4j and graph-based applications are used to gain better
access and availability of government services, locally and
nationally. 
• Graph Databases eliminates duplication of records (as most
government systems are powered by separate databases).
Storing data as a graph provides synergies between systems
and the ability to see these connections clearly. 
• Neo4j enables Governments to cross-use data from different
services (i.e. Traffic permits, Local Tax-payments) in creating
efficient multi-purpose and multi-platform services.
E-Government

“The Federal Government largely has
missed out on that transformation due to
poor management of technology
investments, with IT projects too often
costing hundreds of millions of dollars
more than they should, taking years
longer than necessary to deploy, and
delivering technologies that are obsolete
by the time they are completed. “

Relational Databases Graph DatabasesOther NoSQL
Use the Right Database for the Right Job
Discrete Data Connected Data
Minimally
Connected Data
Focused on Data
Relationships
Neo4j is designed for data relationships
Development Beneﬁts Deployment Beneﬁts
Easy model maintenance
Easy query
Ultra high performance
Minimal resource usage

Thank you!
Dr. Jim Webber

Chief Scientist, Neo4j

Graphs in Government

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