Kiwi software supports fight against crime in SE Asia

Those fighting what are highly organised criminal networks recognise they can no longer be effective using the same old methods and the same types of resource

Southeast Asia’s growing drugs problem represents a golden opportunity for Wynyard Group.

Those fighting what are highly organised criminal networks recognise they can no longer be effective using the same old methods and the same types of resource.

Their effort is being swamped by the complexity and scale of rapidly evolving, sophisticated criminal operations; to continue with the current approach will yield lesser results.

According to Wynyard managing director Craig Richardson, Southeast Asia's continued regional integration, economic growth and easy access to the drug-producing Golden Triangle area have meant the region faces accelerating impact from trans-national organised crime.

“Technology is now a recognised necessity, playing a critical and increasing role in fighting crime,” he says. “Wynyard’s software tools support critical frontline and background operations to effectively address the growing problem of trans-national and organised crime.

“Wynyard has designed, in effect, its own ‘Golden Triangle of Advanced Software’, a powerful portfolio of software solutions to connect the dots and close the loop on crime.”

To stop organised criminals whose focus includes cyber-crime, child exploitation such as pornography, human trafficking, drugs and a raft of other heinous acts, a wide range of government agencies and allies are often involved. Sharing information and collaborating effectively has become necessary to overcome and disrupt trans-national crime and corruption.

Wynyard recognised that in these situations common “persons of interest” are known by multiple government and enforcement agencies. In addition, where geographical boundaries are close, a technology platform capable of covering criminal networks which move frequently across borders would provide enforcement agencies a significant advantage.

By adding a “person of interest” capability to the Wynyard “Golden Triangle of Advanced Software”, agencies can dramatically increase their ability to share critical information, collaborate on workflow dependent tasks and, most importantly, connect the dots to ensure nothing gets missed in the fight to combat sophisticated organised crime.

Wynyard has secured several strategic contracts with key agencies across the region. In 2014, Richardson says it will continue to execute its growth strategy, positioning itself for further expansion into other relevant agencies across Asia Pacific and playing a key role in building a regional capability to fight this growing threat.

“Wynyard has taken this strategic approach to become the leading provider of critical threat assessment and advanced crime analytics in APAC, investing and deploying a powerful technology platform and solution portfolio to support a growing client base of 19 key international and national agencies in the Asian justice sector across nine countries,” he says.

“Our software is playing an increasingly important role in the region, being used by policing, customs and intergovernmental agencies to disrupt trans-national crime, including drugs, organised crime, money laundering and bomb making, for agencies like the Royal Thai Customs Department, which uses Wynyard software to help protect Thailand’s borders from drug trafficking.”

For confidentiality reasons the company doesn’t disclose the other agencies where its software is being used in the region but it’s understood the potential future frontline user base as Wynyard expands is numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Read more: Wynyard launches compliance solution for NZ govt agencies

The software helps clients collect and organise masses of data, identify organised crime, connect the dots and uncover the truth. Connecting events, people and places to help agencies build a (potential) offender and (potential) victim profile is powerful. It’s what Wynyard commonly terms critical threat assessment and advanced crime analytics and is where the company is fast emerging as a leading market category specialist.

In support of this, Wynyard Group was recently named Asia Pacific market leader in the 2014 RiskTech100 report by Chartis Research and Accenture. It beat out major vendors IBM and SAS, UK defence powerhouse BAE Detica and US-based Palantir.

Link analysis, predictive modelling, artificial intelligence and open-source intelligence gathering tools are used by Wynyard’s APAC clients. Chartis Research noted artificial intelligence or intelligent machines for detecting and protecting companies from risk and crime is expected to have the highest rate of future adoption. Wynyard Group’s Crime Science Research Centre is working closely with the University College of London (UCL) to continue developing these approaches.

Wynyard has a clear strategy of leading the critical threat assessment and advanced crime analytics market and is on target to deliver revenue growth of more than 60 per cent in 2013/2014, Richardson says. The company has more than 400 customers globally using its software, which is purpose-built for defending vulnerable entities while protecting privacy and civil liberties. The use of rigorous governance policies and controls around data are built with this in mind, another key requirement of its clients.

Through its focused work is in APAC, Wynyard has created a blue print for building a regional crime prevention and disruption capability. This can be extended to other continents where government agencies and allies take a trans-national approach to tackling crime and corruption.

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Tags softwareorganised crimeSouth East AsiaWynyard GroupWynyard

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