A decade ago, Kevari scored a big win when Sudheer Prem agreed to leave his R&D position at SAS and become our Chief Technology Officer. Since then, he’s patented new technology, built a high-performing IT team, introduced multiple solutions, contributed to company growth, and much more. And he’s done it all while lighting up the office with his brilliant smile.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, Sudheer and his team are busier than ever. We were fortunate to get a few minutes to ask him about his first 10 years at Kevari.
What attracted you to the CTO position at Kevari?
I knew I wanted to work for a company that was focused on adapting and deploying cutting-edge technologies to solve complex business challenges. When I learned about the impact identity fraud has on the financial services industry and consumers, I knew this was a problem I wanted to help solve.
I also liked the entrepreneurial feel of the company, and the fact that we could stay small but scale our solutions to serve thousands of institutions.
What have been some of the significant changes you’ve experienced in IT/programming since you’ve been with Kevari?
There have been so many – but most probably the top 5 are:
- Data volumes have grown exponentially and there is a focus on both structured and unstructured data;
- AI technologies like deep learning/machine learning are gaining traction;
- Scalability and time-to-market considerations have given prominence to micro-service architecture. Integration and adaptability are key factors;
- Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CICD), automation, adherence to multiple platforms/devices have become an industry practice;
- Emergence of social media and platforms has fueled social engineering and related security risks for systems designs.
You and your team are credited with constructing the industry-leading fraud-intelligence platform on which multiple Kevari solutions are built. Tell us about the platform.
The platform combines massive identity and consortium databases, patented methodologies, and advanced analytical tools, like graph visualization, machine learning, and patented encrypted search technology using the event-driven and micro-services-based architectures with built-in scalability, elasticity, re-usability, maintainability, security, etc.
Because today’s fraud attacks are increasingly digital, fast-paced, and well-organized, we conduct continuous surveillance across the platform to identify potential threats, look for emerging fraud schemes, and provide investigative data and insights to fraud investigators at our client banks and credit unions.
Your team has an exciting platform enhancement in the works. What can you say about it?
Without giving away our intellectual property, I can say that we’re working to solve yet another issue that fraud investigators face when trying to root out new-account fraud and account takeover at their institutions.
In a nutshell, most fraud-detection solutions provide a moment-in-time fraud-risk analysis based on historical data and the data entered during the inquiry. But with the way fraud rings develop between multiple institutions, investigators these days must not only be aware of the historical patterns and legitimacy of the input data and, they also need to know if suspicious activity occurs at other institutions after their inquiry.
What’s the timeline for rolling out this enhancement?
We are developing this new functionality as we speak, and we plan to roll it out as part of a major release yet this year.
Are you game for another 10 years at Kevari?
Most definitely! I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.
