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Data Forensics with Power BI
What is Benford’s Law?
In Many real-life sources of data, the
leading digit is distributed in a specific,
non-uniform way
The first digit is 1, about 30% of the time,
Larger digits occur with lower and lower
frequency
9 occurs less than 5%
What is Benford’s Law?
 Benford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in
lists of numbers from many (but not all) real-life sources
of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-
uniform way. According to this law, the first digit is 1
about 30% of the time, and larger digits occur as the
leading digit with lower and lower frequency, to the
point where 9 as a first digit occurs less than 5% of the
time.
Wikipedia, retrieved 08/25/2011
From Theory to Application
 Dr. Mark Nigrini:
 Published a thesis noting that Benford’s Law could be used to detect fraud
 human choices are not random
 It is suggested that invented numbers are unlikely to follow Benford’s Law.
Conforming Data Types
 Transactions
 Accountancy data e.g. Journal entries
 Purchase orders
 Stock prices
 T&E expenses, etc.
Non Conforming Data Types
 Nominal data e.g. Telephone Numbers
 Heights
 Prices where there is a threshold or a ‘cap’
 Aggregated Data
 Less than 500 transactions
 Check the data: Benford’s Law, Outliers, data acquisition, missing data, system
information, event timings
 Look for strange behaviours in the process e.g. bypassing permission limits
 Due diligence not being followed, or simply not implemented due to a lack of safeguards
which are there to protect the innocent from making mistakes
Example: Data Audits
Data Visualisation to help you audit your data
 Demo in Power BI and R
 Benford’s Law
 Outliers
 Missing data
Occurrences in example Euro data
Occurrences in example Euro data
Summary
 Benford’s Law is not the final word, but it is a start for the curious.
 Doubt yourself all the time… prove everything.
 Think repeatable principles in science.
 Occam’s Razor
 Repeatable results.. By someone else
 Context is vital; the data is meaningless without it.

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Data forensics with R and Power BI

  • 2.
  • 3.
  • 4. What is Benford’s Law? In Many real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-uniform way The first digit is 1, about 30% of the time, Larger digits occur with lower and lower frequency 9 occurs less than 5%
  • 5.
  • 6. What is Benford’s Law?  Benford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many (but not all) real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non- uniform way. According to this law, the first digit is 1 about 30% of the time, and larger digits occur as the leading digit with lower and lower frequency, to the point where 9 as a first digit occurs less than 5% of the time. Wikipedia, retrieved 08/25/2011
  • 7. From Theory to Application  Dr. Mark Nigrini:  Published a thesis noting that Benford’s Law could be used to detect fraud  human choices are not random  It is suggested that invented numbers are unlikely to follow Benford’s Law.
  • 8. Conforming Data Types  Transactions  Accountancy data e.g. Journal entries  Purchase orders  Stock prices  T&E expenses, etc.
  • 9. Non Conforming Data Types  Nominal data e.g. Telephone Numbers  Heights  Prices where there is a threshold or a ‘cap’  Aggregated Data  Less than 500 transactions
  • 10.  Check the data: Benford’s Law, Outliers, data acquisition, missing data, system information, event timings  Look for strange behaviours in the process e.g. bypassing permission limits  Due diligence not being followed, or simply not implemented due to a lack of safeguards which are there to protect the innocent from making mistakes Example: Data Audits
  • 11. Data Visualisation to help you audit your data  Demo in Power BI and R  Benford’s Law  Outliers  Missing data
  • 14.
  • 15. Summary  Benford’s Law is not the final word, but it is a start for the curious.  Doubt yourself all the time… prove everything.  Think repeatable principles in science.  Occam’s Razor  Repeatable results.. By someone else  Context is vital; the data is meaningless without it.

Notes de l'éditeur

  1. To detect manipulations or fraud in accounting data, auditors have successfully used Benford's law as part of their fraud detection processes. Benford's law proposes a distribution for first digits of numbers in naturally occurring data. Government accounting and statistics are similar in nature to financial accounting. In the European Union (EU), there is pressure to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact criteria. Therefore, like firms, governments might try to make their economic situation seem better. In this paper, we use a Benford test to investigate the quality of macroeconomic data relevant to the deficit criteria reported to Eurostat by the EU member states. We find that the data reported by Greece shows the greatest deviation from Benford's law among all euro states.
  2. To detect manipulations or fraud in accounting data, auditors have successfully used Benford's law as part of their fraud detection processes. Benford's law proposes a distribution for first digits of numbers in naturally occurring data. Government accounting and statistics are similar in nature to financial accounting. In the European Union (EU), there is pressure to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact criteria. Therefore, like firms, governments might try to make their economic situation seem better. In this paper, we use a Benford test to investigate the quality of macroeconomic data relevant to the deficit criteria reported to Eurostat by the EU member states. We find that the data reported by Greece shows the greatest deviation from Benford's law among all euro states. An examination of the quarterly GDP growth rate from December 1991 to September 2012 shows zero occurred as the second digit 21 times, much higher than what Benford would calculate and suggesting a rounding-up to achieve a bigger leading digit. One through four also appeared more regularly than the law reckons, while seven through nine featured less.
  3. Benford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many (but not all) real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-uniform way. According to this law, the first digit is 1 about 30% of the time, and larger digits occur as the leading digit with lower and lower frequency, to the point where 9 as a first digit occurs less than 5% of the time. Wikipedia, retrieved 08/25/2011
  4. Benford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many (but not all) real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-uniform way. According to this law, the first digit is 1 about 30% of the time, and larger digits occur as the leading digit with lower and lower frequency, to the point where 9 as a first digit occurs less than 5% of the time. Wikipedia, retrieved 08/25/2011