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
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!
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
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
The arm of the law is not only long but patient and painstaking. This month, the U.S. Department of Justice charged a former account manager for Swedish telecom giant Ericsson with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The one-time Ericsson employee facilitated the payment of $2 million to two high-ranking officials in … Payables and FCPA Compliance
Managing vendor information entails risk. The vendor master file is the key to vendor payments. Errors in the vendor master can lead to costly mistakes, and the master file is a prime target for fraud. There is also a risk of non-compliance with particular government tax, sanction and exclusion programs. Further, some of the vendor … What Are Your Risks in Vendor Information Management?
Criminals Steal $650,000 from Non-profit Organization. It was a heartbreaking discovery. A non-profit organization paid out an amount equating to 26 percent of its annual revenue over a month in what the organization thought was legitimate project payments. When the executive director later spoke to the group that was to hire architects and engineers for … Anatomy of Business Email Compromise Fraud
Hackers continue a relentless barrage Last December, the U.S. government announced a major cyber breach by Russian hackers. Before we had understood fully the impact of that attack on 18,000 organizations and government agencies, we learned “holes” in Microsoft’s email software led to another compromise of 30,000 U.S. organizations. That attack was by Hafnium, a … Cyber Risk Statistics and the Need to Secure Sensitive Information
