International Fraud Prevention Week kicked off on November 17 and it’s the perfect time to get serious about fighting, preventing and raising awareness about all kinds of scams and threats.

This week is International Fraud Prevention Week and this year the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Center is working on the theme of collaboration.

So Cyber ​​Daily teamed up with some industry experts to talk about how big the threat of scams and fraud is, how fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated, and what businesses can do to protect themselves. protect, protect their data and their customers.

Patrick Harding
Chief Architect at Ping Identity

As our world becomes increasingly digital, fraud continues to grow at an alarming rate, putting businesses and individuals at risk of losing hard-earned dollars and valuable data. Thanks to AI, it’s never been easier for cybercriminals to create fake identities, send phishing emails, falsify documents, and even impersonate people with tools such as voice cloning and deepfakes. In fact, 36 percent of people reported being victims of identity fraud, financial fraud (18 percent), account takeover (9 percent) and identity theft (8 percent). ) being the most common.

This International Fraud Awareness Week, businesses and individuals must stay one step ahead of bad actors by using security solutions that integrate real-time threat prevention, detection and response. By focusing on identity risks and remaining vigilant, we can detect fraud earlier and stop cybercriminals before the damage is already done.

Pierre Philipp
Managing Director, ANZ, at Neo4j

Fighting money laundering networks is all about finding connections, and modern technologies help connect those connections – although some technologies are better than others. Knowledge graph technology, supported by a graph database, is well suited to combating money laundering, as its primary goal is to uncover hidden patterns and relationships in data.

In simple terms, it focuses on “nodes” and “relationships”, meaning that a number of qualitative or quantitative properties can be assigned to describe complex patterns in a coherent and descriptive way. Graph databases place as much emphasis on the relationships between data points as on the data itself, which means that entities such as “person”, “account”, “company”, and “address”, as well as their connections to each other, such as “recorded at” or “processed with,” then reveal complex connections. With this richer context, banks can compare a single entity, such as a company or person, to other similar data inputs to identify potential deviations from the norm.

Real-time analysis that reveals data patterns is the only effective way to stay ahead of criminal networks and their money movements. Armed with graphical database software and AI, the banking and finance industry can take on money launderers and win.

Carla Roncato
Vice President of Identity at WatchGuard Technologies

While external risks such as cyberscams, ransomware and identity theft often make headlines, internal risks can be difficult to detect and just as damaging to organizations. Insider risks can be intentional, such as data theft or sabotage by disgruntled employees, or unintentional, such as accidental data leaks or policy violations.

Employees, contractors, and vendors with internal access can compromise or bypass information security controls to let bad actors in for profit, exploit privileges in financial and procurement systems to commit fraud for financial purposes and exfiltration (intentional or not) of customer and intellectual data. property for sale on Dark Web data marketplaces.

The Williamsons
Regional Director, Australia and New Zealand, at Check Point Software Technologies

As cyber fraud becomes more sophisticated, Australian business defenses must evolve accordingly. With AI increasing the scope and impact of fraud, organizations across all industries should adopt equally dynamic security, leveraging AI-powered solutions to outpace and outwit attackers. Building a resilient cyber defense not only prevents fraud, but also promotes a safer and more trusted environment for Australian businesses and consumers.

In an age where technology is both a tool and a threat, businesses of all sizes must remain vigilant, adaptive and informed. With a proactive approach to cybersecurity, Australia can build a resilient front against fraud, safeguarding financial stability, reputation and customer trust.

An internal risk management program focuses on the following areas:

• Company policy guidelines with clear, established definitions of acceptable use of company resources, data processing, and consequences for violations.
• Least privilege and role-based access controls to ensure employees have minimal access to information necessary for their job functions,
• Monitoring and detection capabilities such as monitoring user activity for unusual behaviors that may indicate a potential insider threat and behavioral analytics using machine learning to identify patterns that deviate from baselines and standards.
• Incident response plan with specific actions to take when an insider threat is detected, as well as the ability to conduct forensic investigations to understand the scope and impact of an incident.

Finally, culture and training promote transparency and trust, where employees are comfortable reporting suspicious activities, as well as training that provides a clear understanding of the potential consequences of internal fraud and risky activities. .