Giant Oak Offers Screening Product GOST to Aid Afghan Refugees

In an effort to expedite screening processes required for Afghan refugee resettlement, Giant Oak provides its flagship product free of charge

ARLINGTON, Va. – Today, Giant Oak, Inc. announced its flagship data screening product, GOST^® (Giant Oak Search Technology), will be made available for complimentary use by government agencies and other organizations executing the screening processes required to resettle refugees from Afghanistan in the United States.

Following the recent Taliban takeover of the Afghan capital of Kabul, the United States is working to evacuate as many vulnerable Afghan people as possible and help them resettle in the U.S. Both the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program and the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) require refugees to go through stringent security screening, interviews, and adjudication by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), approximately 20,000 Afghans have begun this process and are waiting for an SIV. On average, wait times for the completion of the process take two years.

“The situation in Afghanistan is a tragedy of human suffering. Innocent people and those who worked to support U.S. forces overseas need our help. The sooner the U.S. government agencies involved can complete the screening processes for those who are currently in the pipeline, the more refugees we can assist,” said Gary M. Shiffman, CEO of Giant Oak. “We use our machine learning tool, GOST, to screen massive amounts of data in minutes. If equipping those on the front lines of this humanitarian mission with GOST will help save the lives of innocents, then that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Founded in 2013, Giant Oak is the leading data-screening innovator that operates at the frontiers of behavioral science and machine learning to detect unknown threats. Developed by Giant Oak’s team of social scientists, economists, and computer scientists, GOST is the fastest, most reliable adverse media search tool on the market and has been proven to make organizations up to 97% more efficient in screening entities.

GOST uses artificial intelligence to revolutionize search and screening processes for government agencies, private sector businesses, financial institutions, and more. A variety of security institutions use GOST to complete anti-terrorism, anti-human trafficking, anti-drug trafficking, and cross-border safety and security missions. In the first half of 2021, GOST enabled users to detect 300-plus money launderers and fraudsters, 80-plus traffickers, and 150-plus violent crimes and illicit actors.

For those interested in using GOST (Giant Oak Search Technology) to expedite screening processes for Afghan refugees, please contact info@giantoak.com. To learn more about Giant Oak or GOST, please visit giantoak.com.