Today, every electronic
purchase in Portugal runs through their software. Around the globe, Feedzai
products screen some US$229 billion-worth of payments every year.
But what do space missions and
software designed to find thieves have in common? More than you might think –
in addition to high-tech hardware, space missions require a great deal of
sophisticated software.
“When you launch a spacecraft,
you need software to guide it,” explained Feedzai’s Paulo Marques, who was an
ESA consultant before founding Feedzai in 2009. “You also need software for
communications from the ground.”
Long before a spacecraft is
launched, the software must be thoroughly tested for flaws. There’s just one
problem, explained Paulo: “You don’t have an actual spacecraft yet.”
So, scientists build a
software universe to simulate the mission.
“What you need to have is
something that represents the spacecraft, mission control and ground stations,
along with many other components, in order to check it all.”
At ESA, Paulo and Feedzai’s
Nuno Sebastiao called on high-performance computing techniques to create
virtual satellites: “Clusters of computers pretend to be everything involved. A
computer acts like a spacecraft.”
The software must be very
robust in order to mimic each element of the mission and spacecraft perfectly.
And it must be able to do this
quickly – in far less time than it would take to complete an actual mission.
“The software has to be able
to process all the information it gets in a very, very effective way,” said
Paulo, “as if it were the real spacecraft.”
Spacecraft operators also
train using this software. “You are not going to put a spacecraft in the hands
of someone who hasn’t trained before.”
Space experience for stopping fraud
Fraud detection and space mission software
face similar challenges. For one thing, both need to process huge amounts of
information in real time. “If we talk about a bank, you need to process
thousands of transactions every single second.”
In bank fraud detection, as in
space, software must recognize anything that is out of the ordinary.
In space, an unexpected change
in temperature could indicate a crack in the wall. In banking, anomalies often
point to fraud: if a petrol station suddenly starts generating sales figures
like those of a luxury car dealership, it is a sign of trouble.
However, there are
differences. While hard-and-fast rules are set to detect an anomaly in space,
fraud requires decisions on a case-by-case basis. A sudden temperature change
in a spacecraft is always a problem, but each bank customer has his own,
individual habits.
As a result, the software must
recognize what is normal for a business-owner and what is normal for a teacher,
based on the past practices of each, before it can identify any odd behavior.
To make this possible, Feedzai
came up with an artificial intelligence software system.
“We developed software that
can process a huge number of transactions,” said Paulo. This software can look
at every transaction a customer has made for the last four years.
By applying both ‘machine
learning’ and ‘big-data techniques’ to look at all the data, the software
learns to distinguish fraudulent-looking from non-fraudulent-looking
transactions.
“The software creates the
rules.”
Feedzai’s software is
certainly robust. Tracking over 300 variables per person, it creates very
detailed, individualized spending profiles for as many as 20 million credit
cardholders per system. “In total we are tracking over five billion variables
continuously.”
“It’s like having 500 very
intelligent people looking at every single transaction and making a call based
on their experience if it’s fraud or not. It’s a huge amount of computing
power.”
Carlos Cerqueira from
Instituto Pedro Nunes, the Portuguese broker in ESA’s
Technology
Transfer Network part of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme, believes
Feedzai’s technology will mean savings for banks, as well as improved customer
loyalty: “Feedzai’s machine learning models and big data science are able to
detect fraud up to 30% earlier than traditional methods, and illustrate how the
competencies developed at ESA research centres can be useful to other sectors.”
Space knowledge generates growth
This year, Feedzai moved its
headquarters from Portugal to California as they expand further into the world
market.
”It is great to see that the
expertise and knowledge generated on European space programs also can lead to
innovative techniques in fighting credit card fraud,” said Frank M. Salzgeber,
Head of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office.
“It illustrates very well the
spin-off potential from our space programmes. Dealing with space calls for
leading-edge technological solutions, which explains why the space industry is
often far ahead of others.”
Portugal’s delegate to ESA,
Luís Serina, emphasised that, “This success case shows us that the investment
in ESA also contributes to the creation of jobs and growth through
technological innovation, which is even more important nowadays.”
Certainly, there is plenty of
fraud to go around: each year, $11.4 billion is lost to credit card fraud. As
cybercriminals grow more sophisticated, that number is likely to grow.
“We’re part of the defence
mechanism,” said Feedzai spokesperson Loc Nguyen. “The invisible layer you as a
consumer never think about. If you don’t know about us, it means that we’re
working.”