A Good Impersonator! Who’s your favorite impressionist? Kate McKinnon? Angela Hoover? Jim Meskimen? Impressionists, also known as impersonators or mimics, make us laugh with their uncanny imitation of famous politicians and celebrities. Dana Carvey’s long-ago take on GHW Bush was classic (“start with a little Mr. Rogers and add John Wayne”), and his Jimmy Stewart … What’s Worse than a Bad Impersonator?
Pesky Passwords Ask your IT chief about the weakest link in your organization’s cybersecurity, and you will receive a quick answer: employees. In cyberspace, passwords guard access to systems, email accounts and websites. Like the speakeasies of old, you need to know the password to get in. But with the ubiquity of password authentication, people … 9 Ways to Strengthen the Weak Link in Cybersecurity
Pesky Passwords Ask your IT chief about the weakest link in your organization’s cybersecurity, and you will receive a quick answer: employees. In cyberspace, passwords guard access to systems, email accounts and websites. Like the speakeasies of old, you need to know the password to get in. But with the ubiquity of password authentication, people … 9 Ways to Strengthen the Weak Link in Cybersecurity
If you have been working in or with accounts payable for very long, you are savvy. You know that crooks look for ways to get some of your organization’s money. It’s not easy to scam you. But what about staff? Do they fully comprehend how fraud is a fact of business life? Anyone working in … Don’t Click That Link!
Failure to Follow Controls It happened again. This time, a county government in New Mexico electronically paid $447,372 in nine different disbursements to a criminal. The alleged fraudster may be a Kenyan, but he wasn’t posing as a prince trying to get a fortune out of the country. Instead, he was a resident of Rochester, … Are You Disciplined in Preventing Fraud?
The Criticality of Vendor Bank Account Verification In accounts payable, guarding against fraud is like visiting a big city. Scammers are looking for you. New York City is one of the greatest and safest cities in the world. But take a tip from the natives, the guidebooks and even the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see … Whom Are You Paying?
Vendor Onboarding Fraud Risk Survey What is the biggest weakness in your vendor registration and onboarding process? Lack of visibility? Lack of internal controls? Manual processes? Lack of sufficient personnel? Threats to Vendor Payments Are Non-stop in 2022 IT security teams are working overtime to protect enterprise systems against relentless attackers. Accounts payable teams must … Taking the Measure of Risk in Vendor Onboarding
Appearances and Vendor Payments One of the most iconic scenes in a Hollywood heist movie comes near the end of Ocean’s Eleven. The “team” minus Danny Ocean lean against the balustrade in front of the Bellagio on the Las Vegas strip, quietly gazing at the fountains as Debussy’s beautiful Claire de Lune plays. Then one … Falling for the Illusion of Cybercriminals Will Cost You
OFAC Sanctions Russians and Others The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of sanctioned persons and entities has grown since Russia invaded Ukraine. But along with Russian oligarchs and entities, OFAC has also designated others, most notably two key Hizballah financiers operating out of Guinea in West Africa, in compliance with … OFAC Is Busy with Russia and More – Are You Keeping Up?
ACH has steadily grown, while check payments are declining. Seventy-eight percent of organizations use ACH for some vendor payments. And while 82 percent of organizations still make some payments by check, according to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), the volume of checks by businesses has been steadily declining. According to the Federal … ACH Rising: What It Means for Vendor Information Management
With the pandemic-driven shift to remote work, many organizations moved more check payments to electronic formats, primarily ACH. That has necessitated vendors providing organizations with bank account information. Criminals, of course, go where the money is. And in the hasty shift to more electronic payments and, therefore, more vendors sharing bank account information, many organizations … Two Controls to Protect Vendor Bank Account Information
Do you have controls on managing vendor information and the vendor master file? Do you follow them? Experienced managers will say, “Duh.” However, others can use a reminder, so here it is. “With commerce comes fraud,” says Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of Airbnb. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), in its 2020 Report to the … Why Vendor Controls and Confirmations Are Critical
