Organized crime is very active throughout both the private and public sectors. From banks to major retailers, federal governments to small businesses, fraudsters aren't discerning when choosing which type of organization to target. What's more, crime rings are actively recruiting and deploying groups of thieves across the U.S., making it increasingly difficult for companies to catch bad actors before they strike. Overwhelmed by unmanageable amounts of data, companies have left gaps in their IT systems that criminals are eager to exploit. It's well past time for businesses and governments to take steps to thwart nefarious actors by using technology that outpaces them, keeps customer data safe, and protects organizations across the board.

This week's publication of the Pandora Papers–which the International Consortium of International Journalists based on a trove of private data leaked from offshore tax havens–showcased the alarming extent of fraud and corruption in the world. While big data tech like graph analytics and machine learning can help to a shine light on bad actors, we'll always be playing catch up, fraud hunters tell Datanami. The sheer numbers behind the Pandora Papers, which the ICIJ published on October 3, 2021, are staggering. The ICIJ was provided with 11.9 million documents, including text files, PDFs, images, emails, and spreadsheets, from 14 offshore tax havens, totaling 2.9 TB of data. The documents contained information about 27,000 shell companies created to protect the assets of 29,000 beneficial owners, including 130 billionaires and 330 politicians from 90 countries.