Portfolio of Work: Architecting Fraud Defenses

A collection of real-world case studies demonstrating an architectural approach to mitigating complex fraud risks in high-stakes, resource-scarce environments.

⚖️ All content is generalized to comply with confidentiality obligations. Figures and methods reflect publicly reported incidents or abstracted institutional contributions.

KEY METRIC

93%

Loss Reduction Between Coordinated Attacks, Validating the New Detection Architecture.

Architecting a Defense After a Multi-Million Rand Cyber Heist

The Problem: Following a high-impact cyber incident involving anti-forensic measures (log deletion), the institution lacked the native controls to prevent a repeat attack.

My Action: I engineered a data reconciliation methodology using immutable external records to bypass the deleted logs and quantify the initial loss. Using the attackers' digital fingerprints from that analysis, I then designed and implemented a new behavioral detection framework with proactive alerting logic.

The Result: When a near-identical attack was attempted 10 months later, the new controls provided immediate alerts, enabling containment within hours. This reduced the financial impact of this specific attack vector by 93% (from R89.5M to under R6M).

KEY OUTCOME

10+

Dismissals for Cause Directly Attributable to the Forensic Models I Built.

Building a Forensic Model to Expose High-Volume Insider Collusion

The Problem: A low-tech manual withdrawal process had a critical control gap that was being actively exploited by internal staff in collusion with external syndicates.

My Action: I architected and built a custom monitoring system using Python to ingest and analyze daily withdrawal data. My logic was designed to flag statistically significant anomalies by correlating high-risk transactions to specific staff patterns and procedural deviations.

The Result: My analysis and the evidence packages I produced became the primary source for internal investigations, directly leading to more than 10 dismissals for cause. The findings also prompted immediate policy reform.

KEY CONTRIBUTION

Live Kill-Chain Analysis

Providing Real-Time Intelligence to SAPS/SASSA to Disrupt Active Fraud Operations.

Developing a Tactical Intelligence Feed for National Sting Operations

The Problem: Law enforcement and social protection agencies needed live, actionable intelligence to safely and effectively intercept fraud syndicates operating during peak grant payment windows.

My Action: I designed and operated a tactical support model that transformed raw transaction data into predictive intelligence. Using real-time log analysis, I identified emerging "bust-out" hotspots and fed a live, secure intelligence stream directly to field commanders.

The Result: This intelligence directly enabled multiple successful interventions, leading to arrests at ATM locations. A senior official later confirmed in writing that my work was "mission-critical" and directly contributed to the safety and success of these national operations.

KEY IMPACT

National Policy Change

My Forensic Analysis Drove the Remediation of Millions of Vulnerable Legacy Cards.

Strategic Risk Detection: Forcing a National Card Remediation

The Problem: The institution carried significant liability due to millions of legacy magnetic stripe cards vulnerable to cloning, which could lead to catastrophic losses.

My Action: Through pattern detection, I identified cloning clusters linked to specific identifiers, proving a systemic compromise. I then built an exposure model quantifying the massive financial risk and escalated the urgent need for mitigation to leadership.

The Result: My analysis was a key contributor to a strategic shift in card policy, resulting in a national remediation plan to replace millions of legacy cards with secure EMV alternatives, neutralizing the vulnerability before it was widely exploited.

KEY SKILL

Proactive

Defense by anticipating attacker moves and monitoring systems without automated controls.

Cross-System Fraud Neutralization

The Problem: Coordinated fraud campaigns targeted two separate systems. The first involved record tampering; the second was a replication attempt on a legacy platform, posing a risk of repeat multimillion-rand losses.

My Action: I preserved transaction data from the first system before it was purged. Anticipating the next move, I launched a manual monitoring strategy on the second platform and detected the breach within hours of it beginning.

The Result: The second incident was contained in hours, limiting financial loss. The approach proved the value of proactive, cross-platform intelligence, even in systems without native control frameworks.