Is Your Company Safe From Attack?

Yesterday I read an article in the daily paper that contained some rather alarming figures.

A survey of British businesses found that fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement cost them over £40 billion ( $72 billion) a year. The average loss of the companies surveyed was over £1 million, whereas the loss to the top 100 companies (those in the FTSE 100 index) was £5 million. Companies were reporting losses of up to 5% of turnover.

The significant fact about these figures was that this was only what had been detected. The real losses are certainly many many times greater. And to make matters worse these figures almost entirely represent what is ‘inside’ crime. That is, it is crime committed by employees or by outside temporary staff contracted at the time to the company.

And furthermore, a large number of the companies had no insurance cover to protect them from the consequences of this type of activity.

So what are the lessons to be learned?

1. Don’t imagine that it can’t happen to your company.

It can happen, and most probably will. The bigger your company, the greater is the scope for undetected crime against it.

2. Consider your vulnerabilities.

Are your financial controls sufficient? Are they rigorous? Are they foolproof? Can you trust the people in charge? Are there checks made on the work done? Are you sure of the honesty and loyalty of your staff? Were their references ever followed up when you took them on? Pay particular attention when you take on temporary staff.

3. Think about the consequences of an attack on your company.

Could it take the strain financially? Would it knock your company back to a damaging degree? At what point would the very survival of the company be put into question? Would your company’s reputation suffer irretrievably? (Reputations are very easily damaged, which is why banks seldom admit to the fraud they suffer).

4. Decide on a plan of action to counter the threat.

This could mean a full security review of all your procedures.
This could mean checking again the background of your employees.
This could mean cutting down on temporary staff.
This could mean taking out insurance to protect against the greatest threats.

5. Put your plan into action.

It is no good carrying out a review if you don’t act upon it. Don’t just take note and put it to one side. Once you have weighed up the risks and decided what must be done, do it.

The law of averages is against you. Sooner or later someone within your company will try to cheat you. You may be lucky. It may be a small insignificant attack. But you may be unlucky. It may be the big one. Be vigilant, be ready, be prepared.