Inman

Groups collaborate on standards to measure identity fraud

Edentify Inc. and the New Jersey Institute of Technology announced that they have teamed up to create industry standards for measuring identity fraud, a growing problem connected with financial crimes.

The groups aim to enhance security for all areas of identity usage, including national security, banking, retail and healthcare.

By combining efforts, the groups “hope to get one step closer to fulfilling our objective of enhancing the industry’s ability to snuff out identity fraud. Additionally, we feel that this a great opportunity for Edentify to offer these students real-world experience that they can use after graduation to help fight the nation’s most prevalent crimes,” Terrence DeFranco, CEO of Edentify, said.

Edentify is partnering with NJIT though its Capstone Program, in which computer science students integrate real-world experience with academic experience by designing and implementing software products or other computing services for a sponsoring company. Since the program’s inception two years ago, NJIT has worked with more than 91 sponsors, including six Fortune 500 companies.

Computer science students at NJIT and their faculty advisors in the Capstone Program are pairing a comprehensive national identity database with Edentify’s identity analysis and management technology to develop new standards for objectively measuring identity behavior. Edentify will utilize the findings from the project to develop its technology, and ensure it stays on the cutting edge of identity security, management, and fraud prevention.

“We are excited to work with Edentify on this project,” said Osama Eljabiri, special lecturer and director of the Capstone Program at NJIT. “Identity theft is rampant, and the industry needs new, objective tools that accurately measure and fight it. These students are ready to tackle the knotty problem of identity theft at its core, and develop the tools that will change the direction of identity theft and protection for the future of our privacy.”

Edentify expects the NJIT partnership to be an ongoing research venture to measure and analyze identity theft and security. Once Edentify and NJIT develop the objective tools to measure and track identity fraud, they will perform continuous analysis of the identity environment, including evaluation of identity theft behavior, and comparison of results and trends, and be able to establish objective standards to monitor subtle variations in identity data behavior. This analysis will form the basis for providing better identity security, protecting individual privacy in the digital environment, and combating identity theft. Edentify expects the tools will be able to be used worldwide by all consumers, businesses, and government agencies.

Edentify, formed in August 2004, provides data analysis technology for preventing identity theft and fraud.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology, the state’s public technological research university, enrolls more than 8,100 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 100 degree programs offered by six colleges, including: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences.