Ernst & Young’s Technology Frauds Survey discovers a considerable lack of preparedness in India despite substantial awareness of risks: Nearly 85% of the respondents said that their firm had more than 50% of the data in electronic form, more than one-fourth of the respondents revealed that their company has experienced technology related fraud incidents. Top 5 IT fraud threats: Intellectual Property theft, Theft of personal identifiable information, Online banking or trading fraud, Malwares and Phishing.
Ernst & Young India today released a survey report titled ‘Technology Frauds : a changing world’ which asserts that while companies in India are aware of the risks and potential challenges they face in the digital world, there appears to be a considerable lack of preparedness to counter an incident. The survey was conducted by the Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) team of Ernst and Young to measure the understanding of IT threats and the preparedness of companies to counter the new threats of a paperless world.
A majority (60%) said that their companies preferred an in-house team for conducting the investigation over any specialist agency – Government or private. Interestingly, even as 63 % respondents claimed that their in-house IT team is qualified to perform investigations, only 9 % could provide details of requisite qualifications.
Arpinder Singh, Partner & National Leader, Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services (FIDS), Ernst & Young India said, “As organizations ‘digitize’ making way for globalization, we see an underlying threat of all information owned by a company being accessible for misuse. Timely response and right approach to a technology-led fraud can prevent it from snowballing into a major crisis.”
The survey revealed that an alarming majority of companies rely on basic spreadsheet software for IT fraud investigations “In any investigation, it is imperative to understand the modus operandi of the fraud, the extent of damage, and then take a punitive action against the fraud perpetrator. These requirements make any investigation a highly specialized process, which requires forensic tools, technology & people to cull data in a secure environment so as to maintain confidentiality of the information”, added Mr. Singh.
Forensic Technology Lab launched: Understanding the need of its clients to carry out a quick and fair investigation while realizing the complexity and sensitivity of the kind of cases that its forensic team handles, Ernst & Young FIDS in India has established its first state of the art electronic data processing facility called as the “Forensic Technology Lab” The primary goal of setting up this facility was to create an environment to accomplish the 4 work-steps of a computer forensics investigation: data acquisition, data examination, data analysis and investigation reporting.
