Preventable Nightmares?
By Mike Shultz, Infoglide Software CEO
Every father’s nightmare happened in North Carolina this week. A young woman apparently left a bar voluntarily with a man she met there, and she was subsequently found murdered. The apparent murderer arrested in Niagara Falls had a criminal record that included sexual abuse and was on probation in North Carolina. Could this tragedy have been prevented?
We’ve written recently about the availability of vast data resources, including surface web, dark web, and social media sources. Surface web sources include all the information readily available to search engines. Dark web sources are those available over the internet that require password or other special access, such as local, state, and federal government databases. And of course, an incredible amount of detailed information is contributed on social networking sites by individuals about themselves, families, friends, and colleagues.
It’s feasible to reduce the likelihood of crimes like the one above using available data and technology. Given a few attributes about the murderer, identity resolution could have “similarity searched” the man’s identity against a multitude of online sources and provided a picture of his history and associations. The technology exists to enable people to know who they’re dealing with, no matter the social or business context. Maybe it’s time to use it.
