Minority Report-style crime prevention is fast becoming a reality

“I was fascinated with this idea whether one day we will have the technology to be able to actually predict the crime before it happens, rather than we react to the crime after it happens,” he said.

“Today, we’re actually using technology that can detect anomalies and can sense patterns of abnormal behavior, and we are able to profile people that are likely to perpetrate crime.”

The former captain in the Israeli Defense Forces’ Electronic Warfare unit has a doctorate in law from Yale Law School and conducted his postdoctoral research in computer science on proactive security.

By tracking and analyzing hundreds of different behavioral patterns – from one’s shopping history to travel patterns – anti-fraud algorithms have become sophisticated enough to dramatically reduce credit card fraud, ensuring their widespread use for online transactions, according to Kozlovski.

“That is a Minority Report in real time. So instead of reacting to a credit card fraud after the fact, we actually react in real time,” he said. “Anti-fraud solutions for credit cards are so good now that even though we have hundreds of millions of credit card records being sold on the dark web every second, successful fraud with credit cards is negligible – almost zero.”

Spam filters is another example of technology improving to the point where it is good enough to spot with great accuracy what is a legitimate email and what is spam, he said.

Investments in preventive technology surged after the September 11 attacks, leading to a boom in the field of research into building systems that can predict crime or abnormal behavior, he said. And the technology is increasingly moving into the physical space.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Future Attribute Screening Technology or FAST is a program designed to detect malicious intent in individuals and is deployed in places like federal buildings and airports. Everything from an individual’s body parameters, perspiration, movement, pupil dilation, and fluctuation in voice are scrutinized for abnormality, according to Kozlovski.

In some dormitories in the US, there are now smart cameras empowered by analytics that automatically analyze the relationship if a female is walking back to her room and is being trailed by a male.

Digital data can be used to enhance the analysis, for instance, whether they are friends on Facebook or know each other in other capacities, Kozlovski said. Lights can be switched on automatically in the corridor as a warning if a potential threat is detected.