D2.2: Set of use cases and scenarios

Title: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The United Nations defines terrorism as the activity carried out “to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act”. The report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, published in early December 2004 highlights that in today’s interconnected world a threat to one state’s security is a “threat to all”. The report also mentions that terrorism has important economic consequences, as illustrated by the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, in the Unites States which, according to World Bank estimates, cost more that $80 billion dollars and pushed 11m people in developing countries into poverty.

Financial intelligence – that is, the collection and analysis of financial data - is gaining importance as a key tool in the war on terror. The monitoring of financial transactions carried out by individuals and organizations, together with complex profiling models, facilitate the identification and detection of terrorists, as discussed in this paper.