Data Breaches And Inside Jobs Head UK Firms’ Fraud Risk Fears

A report from financial experts EY has found 83 percent of businesses felt that cyber breaches and insider threats posed the fastest growing fraud risk to their organisation.

The survey of senior executives across nine different industry sectors also found more than two-thirds (68 percent) of UK businesses also said that they needed to do more to improve their current anti-fraud procedures.

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In order to do so, many companies are turning to more in-depth ways of combatting fraud at all levels.

This is primarily through Forensic Data Analytics (FDA), which EY notes is increasingly becoming more mainstream, as new technologies and surveillance monitoring techniques help companies manage current and emerging fraud and cyber risks.

Even low-tech methods such as submitting false travel expenses and inaccurate entertainment receipts, are harming many companies, meaning they need to keep a close eye on all transactions.

Visualisation tools, which help companies detect and single out all kinds of patterns in suspect activity, has doubled over the last two years, EY found, with many companies now using social and web monitoring tools as well as statistical analysis and data mining packages to track down fraudsters.

“UK companies are facing both old and new challenges in fraud prevention,” said Paul Walker, EY’s UK head of forensic technology & discovery services. “It is interesting to see that the more ‘low tech’ forms of fraud, such as submitting false receipts, still pose a big concern for many companies as well as the evolving threat of cybercrime, which is now an everyday reality and a relentless challenge in order to stay ahead of the hackers.

“We are therefore seeing more boards and senior management looking towards advanced technology such as forensic data analytics as a critical component of their risk management and compliance programmes. This is especially critical given the current regulatory enforcement environment and market reaction to instances of alleged corporate fraud, bribery and cyber breaches.”

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