Stop occupational fraud with improved policies, data analytics

Fraud Basics: Fundamentals for all

With the number and frequency of occupational fraud incidents continuing to rise, according to Verizon's 2014 Global Data Breach Investigation Report, organizations' top insider threat is staff members taking advantage of their systems' access privileges to commit nefarious acts. Interestingly, the report indicates that the vast majority of incidents involve employees using their organizations' corporate LAN systems as the attack vectors. And they're committing their crimes on company premises.

Occupational fraud is serious business. In addition to the risk of financial loss, reputational damage and losing customers' trust, corporate victims of occupational fraud can also face increased regulation plus civil and even criminal penalties.

It might be impossible to successfully counter every insider threat. However, companies can and should take proactive steps to identify and address the problem through a combination of strengthened employment policies and data analytics tools. These tools can quickly process and analyze large volumes of data from numerous sources to connect the dots, identify events and relationships of interest plus disrupt insider crime.