IRISH COMPANIES need to be more aware of potential employee fraud as the recession affects employees, a leading security firm has warned.
Colman Morrissey, managing director of IT security advisers Espion, said firms should be prepared and implement new policies to guard against potential illegal activity by employees as economic times tighten.
“In a downturn economy the incidence of fraud increases as people try to make ends meet,” said Mr Morrissey.
“It’s proven in other recessions and depressions in other economies that the incidence of fraud and fraud-related crime increased.”
It is a phenomenon that the company has already witnessed, he added.
“We’ve seen an increase in the number of forensic investigations we are required to do in and around fraud, primarily with redundancies and people trying to make ends meet. People get desperate,” Mr Morrissey pointed out.
While most businesses would be aware of the threat posed by malicious users outside their firm, fewer may be proactively protecting against potential fraud carried out from within the organisation.
Mr Morrissey urged employers to be vigilant, and to be aware that fraud is likely to increase.
“I think some companies think that we’re still in a high economy when they are making redundancies across the board.
“People now know that it’s not easy to pick up jobs, that it’s not easy for them to pick up where they left off,” he said.
Mr Morrissey recommended that firms develop an incident- response policy that would cover what they would do in the event of a fraud occurring, how they would handle it and who would be made aware of it.
“Having an incident-response policy would be the most important thing to do,” he said.
Cyber criminals may also view the current difficulties as an opportunity as companies strive to save their business, potentially taking their eye off the ball, or cutting staff, Mr Morrissey warned.
Cyber crime, regardless of its source, can cost businesses in terms of lost productivity, damaged reputation and lost revenue.
Espion has developed a method that companies can use to work out the estimated cost should an intrusion occur, taking into account factors such as how many employees it requires to investigate the incident.
“At a basic level, the most obvious cost component associated with a security incident of any kind is the cost of the human labour that will be inevitably required to investigate the breach,” said Colm Murphy, technical director with the company.
“Add to this the fact that these ‘investigators’, assuming they are employees, will be taken away from their normal work activities, thereby resulting in lost productivity,” he said.
