Defending Defense: Automated Risk Screening of the US Defense Industrial Base
What AI-powered screening of millions of government vendor records reveals about hidden risk in the defense supply chain
The U.S. Defense Industrial Base includes more than 100,000 companies and their subcontractors, many of them international and exposed to shifting geopolitical risk. In this whitepaper, Quantifind Co-Founder John Stockton presents early results from proactively screening and continuously monitoring more than 2 million entities drawn from public government databases such as SAM.gov and USASpending.gov. Using the Graphyte platform, Quantifind uncovered sanctions hits, Foreign Ownership, Control and Influence (FOCI) signals, fraud, corruption, financial instability and other risks, many of them likely unknown to the agencies holding the contracts. The paper describes the screening methodology, summarizes findings by risk category without naming entities, and makes the case for a coordinated, cross-government approach to automated vendor vetting.
- Sanctions exposure is more common than expected. Screening surfaced dozens of sanctions hits against U.S. government vendors, often obscured by aliases, subsidiaries and shell companies.
- FOCI can hide behind a clean profile. Some vendors with no visible foreign ownership had critical Chinese influence through deals and controlling investments.
- Fraud is the most common risk signal. Fraud triggered more often than any other category across the vendor set.
- Most alerts come from recent events. A majority of alerts were triggered by news and data from the preceding few weeks, which is why continuous monitoring matters more than one-time vetting.
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From Public Vendor Data to Actionable Risk Intelligence
Introduction
Why vendor vetting needs the same automation banks apply to Know Your Customer (KYC) screening.
Methodology
How Graphyte batch-screened and continuously monitored more than 2 million entities from public government databases.
Risk Screening Results, Sanctions and FOCI
Sanctions hits across U.S. and international lists, and Chinese and Russian influence signals.
Risk Screening Results, Financial and Other Crimes
Fraud, misrepresentation, domestic and international corruption, arrests and other criminal exposure.
Risk Screening Results, Instability and Other Signals
Bankruptcy, acquisitions, accidents, lawsuits, cyber incidents and the false signals worth filtering out.
Summary, A Shared Responsibility
Why consistent, cross-government ownership of vendor risk is overdue.
John co-founded Quantifind in 2009 and now leads Quantifind’s prototyping efforts to extract signals, and value, from vast amounts of diverse, unstructured data. John’s prior academic work included theoretical and experimental research in precision metrology, quantum entanglement, and atomic physics. In 2012, John was awarded the Peter Strauss Award by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation for demonstrating exceptional leadership in his entrepreneurial endeavors. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology.
