Global accounting firm EY enables companies to achieve their digital ambitions by becoming more data-driven. As per Gartner’s 2021 research on Data and Analytics Service Providers, EY has been recognised as a market leader in this segment. EY business lines leverage data and analytics solutions through AI labs and innovation centres. The research also reveals that EY’s top industries for data and analytics are financial services including banking and insurance.

To get a deeper insight into the use of emerging technologies at EY, Samiksha Mehra of INDIAai spoke with Louis Bladel who is the Managing Director of Assurance Services at the US operations of Ernst and Young LLP. A forensics professional, his work helps companies and governmental organisations safeguard and restore financial and brand reputations. 

“By definition, forensics is a very thorough investigation, and we use data to support our investigations,” explains Lou. He uses AI to proactively understand the data for his high profile clients which include US federal agencies, Fortune 100 companies and government regulators.

Explaining in very simple terms, he says, “AI is data manipulation, really, and machine learning is just making sure that you have the appropriate algorithms. So we look at this data, understand what ‘appropriate’ looks like and what ‘not appropriate’ looks like. And if it's ‘not appropriate’, how do you get them to stop doing that? That's how we use data within EY.”

Lou Bladel (left) of EY in conversation with Samiksha Mehra (right) of INDIAai

Data analytics for forensics 

Elaborating further on his role, Lou says, “I focus on risk identification and mitigation and counsel clients on how to best protect information and the systems that matter most to them. I team with our clients to help transform their organisations to address a wide range of challenges through the use of data analytics.”

Essentially, his job is to analyse varying data sources to uncover links, patterns and anomalies. Using advanced forensic technologies and data visualization tools, his team at EY gathers facts and quickly detects fraudulent activities. He then investigates and remediates instances of data theft, economic espionage, insider threat, intellectual property theft and cybersecurity threats. 

Before joining EY, Lou was an FBI special agent for 26 years. Notably, he has led the investigations into Edward Snowden. During his five years at EY, Lou has managed to leverage his FBI experience to help corporations stay one step ahead of fraudsters and white collar criminals.

“I think most companies have historically been very reactive, meaning that they won't do anything until they're faced with a problem. We help them utilise their data to become more proactive, and that’s why I'm valuable for EY because I use my FBI life on how we did investigations.”

While Lou brings over 26 years of investigative experience to the table, the Forensic Data Analytics professionals at EY are experienced in machine learning, natural language processing and robotic process automation. And this combination is what makes an ideal team, as per Lou.

Making sense of big data

Lou helps the companies understand what data is and how to use it for proactive anti-fraud detection, among numerous other things.

“Most companies don't have any idea how much data they really have. They have a lot of data, they keep a lot of data, but they don't manipulate it or utilise it. So we tie this data together using AI. We build algorithms around that data to help machines interpret it and, then, spit out a risk score.”

More specifically, Lou’s area of focus is internal risk. “Most companies are great with cyber defenses. They have a very good moat or a wall around the company. But now, they're looking internally to make sure that their employees can't do them harm as well. It's about using data that already exists to ensure that their employees are operating within the guardrails of what their current jobs are.”

He explains how data is leveraged for this purpose. “We take all that data and risk-score it. And once we identify riskier employees, we help companies understand ‘Hey, this is an employee that could be doing harm for your company. Let us help you investigate that.’”

“One of the hardest parts about cyber or AI is that people say those words all the time, but they don't really put any meaning behind them,” says Lou. Therefore, he helps big companies to make sense of the complex web of data and the increasing regulatory structures around responsible handling of sensitive data.

“We help companies with their policies and procedures on how long to keep the information and for what purposes. Especially if it’s personally identifiable data, there are different penalties, such as GDPR penalties, associated with losing people's information.”

Outsmarting the fraudsters using AI

“I've been amazed with how most companies don't deal with data and cyber security until there's a problem. They'll sit back and wait until there's been some sort of a hack or data loss,” he says.

Fraud is an ever evolving problem, according to Lou. “Every time a company puts a new defence in place, the fraudsters will find a workaround. We always joke at work that if these fraud guys would put their mind to curing cancer, they would probably cure it, but they put their minds to stealing from everyone,” says Lou.

Speaking on the use of emerging technologies for fraud detection, he says, “They're very new actually. I think that the technology has been around probably five to 10 years, but as far as how aggressively they’ve being used, the large banks are very good at detecting fraud.”

He further throws some light on the work happening at EY in India. “A lot of our data scientists are in India, and while we help them build algorithms, they are the ones who are really massaging and interpreting the data. We have many of our leading data scientists here who are Indian by birth,” he says.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay