Daily Archives: September 16, 2013

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Prelert, the first company to provide 100 percent self-learning predictive analytics solutions to address the volumes of data generated by todays IT systems, today announced a partnership with DNA, a leading distributor of IT and network infrastructure and security solutions in Australia. DNA will distribute Prelerts Anomaly Detective for Splunk Enterprise environments to resellers and customers across Australia. Anomaly Detective uses machine intelligence assistance to locate problematic behavior changes hidden in huge volumes of operations data.

Prelerts predictive analytics technology perfectly complements the Splunk Enterprise solution, which provides a huge opportunity for us, said Munsoor Khan, managing director at DNA. Prelerts self-learning capability allows customers to more effectively analyze their rapidly growing volume of machine data. Its almost impossible to locate problems using human intelligence alone. Prelerts ability to learn normal behavior and then detect anomalies is going to be a game changer for many organizations.

As Splunks Asia Pacific Distributor of the Year for three of the past four years, DNA is the ideal partner for our expansion into the Australia market, said Karl Renneker, manager, Channel Development at Prelert. We look forward to leveraging DNAs extensive experience with Splunk and its proven ability to launch new brands in this market.

Anomaly Detective is easily downloadable software that installs in minutes as a tightly integrated application for Splunk Enterprise. Anomaly Detective is 100 percent self-learning and requires minimal configuration. It identifies developing issues and provides detailed diagnostic data that enables IT experts to avoid problems or diagnose them as much as 90 percent faster than previously possible.

About DNA

DNA specializes in taking fast-growing vendors of network infrastructure, security and visibility solutions to the Australian channel, offering a unique suite of programs built on technical support, enablement and opportunity generation. Founded in 1993, DNA is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. For further information, visit http://www.dna.com.au.

About Prelert

The complex IT environments behind todays online applications and services generate more operations management data than a human can structure or analyze. Prelert is the first company to solve this problem by providing 100 percent self-learning predictive analytics solutions that augment IT expertise with machine intelligence assistance to dramatically improve IT operations. For more information, visit http://www.prelert.com.

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Prelert Partners With DNA to Distribute Its Predictive Analytics for IT Operations in Australia

It was a murder that vexed city police.

On a spring evening three years ago, Brent Wentworth was strangled in his apartment in a quiet residential area on Schenectady's North Side.

Wentworth, 41, described by family members as a hardworking man who suffered from schizophrenia, had no known enemies and appeared to be a victim of a random robbery. Detectives were stumped and ran short on leads, eventually going public with Wentworth's family, offering a $2,000 reward for help in what police leaders called a "difficult investigation."

As months passed with no arrest, forensic scientists in the case turned to a new technology to examine human residue found on an amplifier cord that detectives believe was used to strangle Wentworth. The computer-assisted technology, which has never been tested in a New York court, uses mathematical formulas to pinpoint individual human DNA on an item that may have been touched by many people.

The DNA samples found on the cord led police to their suspect, John Wakefield, a career criminal from Schenectady who prosecutors said knew the victim in passing. In December 2012, Wakefield, who was in state prison on unrelated charges, was indicted in Wentworth's murder.

Prosecutors allege Wakefield went to the victim's residence and killed Wentworth before stealing his belongings.

Defense attorney Fred Rench of Clifton Park characterized the DNA technology used to zero in on his client as "voodoo" and said he will challenge whether it should be allowed as evidence.

The software, which analyzes low-quality and mixed DNA samples, has been accepted as evidence at trial courts in Virginia, Pennsylvania and California, according to its developer, Mark Perlin of Pittsburgh, Pa. He said the method, known as probabilistic genotyping, was used to help identify victims of the 9/11 terrorism attack in New York City and will be implemented at the State Police crime lab in Albany.

Perlin, chief executive officer of Cybergenetics, which developed the technology, said the computer program analyzes the mixed samples to narrow the DNA of a single person from hundreds of thousands of potential matches.

Barry Duceman, director of biological science for the State Police lab, said law enforcement agencies are embracing the technology. Duceman, who also serves as an adjunct professor of biology and biomedical sciences at the University at Albany, said the software uses a statistical analysis to help scientists separate the DNA of people contributing to a mixture of samples on something like a door knob.

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DNA test put on trial

Technology and an expanding database is making DNA the molecular building block that's unique as a fingerprint exponentially more successful in solving crimes in Texas.

The number of crimes solved after a suspect's DNA matched with offenders' DNA samples stored in the national repository known as CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) recently passed the 10,000th mark.

The state averaged only about 200 matches a year during the first five years after the database was created in 1996.

That number leaped to an average 1,000 hits a year for the next 10 years. In just the past 11 months, the matches have nearly doubled to 1,943, records show.

Some of the high-profile CODIS matches in the San Antonio area over the past two years have included:

DNA on a Kansas City baseball cap was analyzed in 2011, leading to the arrest of Jeremiah Barefield in the 1997 slaying of Kimberly Coleman, 31. Barefield was targeting a security guard when he shot and killed Coleman, an innocent bystander.

Jose Baldomero Flores III was arrested in 2011 in connection with the death of Esmeralda Herrera, 30, who was beaten and strangled before her apartment was set on fire. DNA on a beer can in Herrera's kitchen, along with hairs, fibers, cell phone records and a bloody shoeprint, linked Flores to Herrera's slaying. However, charges were dropped against Flores. He was released from jail and the investigation into Esmeralda Herrera's death remains open.

Daniel Flores Garcia, then 49, was arrested in 2011 in a decades-old cold case after DNA connected him to the death of Marilyn McDonald. McDonald was 37 when she was beaten and stabbed to death in 1986.

Many of these crimes might never have been solved if not for this database, said Steven McCraw, who heads the Texas Department of Public Safety, which manages the database.

Detective Robert Bunnell, one of SAPD's cold case investigators, agrees.

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DNA now spelling more guilty verdicts