@Risk

Despite growing awareness and appreciation of the risks of non-compliance, only about one in four companies feel ready to meet the requirements of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the UK Bribery Act (UKBA), according to new survey results from Kroll Business Intelligence and Investigations.

The study, which polled more than 1,200 senior executives from a broad range of industries worldwide, found that:

• Just 27 percent of survey respondents said they are well-prepared to comply with FCPA and UKBA.
• Of those companies subject to these two laws, just  43 percent have trained senior management, agents, vendors and foreign employees to be compliant with one of these laws. Even less (39 percent) have assessed the risks arising from them.
• More than one-third (37 percent) believe their due diligence provides a sufficient understanding of a potential partner’s of investment target’s compliance with these acts.

Clearly, companies need to step up their game. Not only are the risks of non-compliance quite serious (and getting more so), but fraud is on the rise. Knoll’s new research also showed that: (more…)

Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee announced that it has launched an investigation into counterfeit electronic parts in the Department of Defense’s supply chain.

According to a statement by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the presence of counterfeit electronic parts in the Defense Department’s supply chain is a growing problem, and both government and industry share a common interest in solving it.

From the statement:

Counterfeit electronic parts pose a risk to our national security, the reliability of our weapons systems and the safety of our military men and women. The proliferation of counterfeit goods also damages our economy and costs American jobs.

A report last January by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Technology Evaluation, found that counterfeit electronics are already present in troubling amounts in the DOD supply chain. The report, which covered 2005 to 2008, revealed that:

• More than one-third (39 percent) of the companies and organizations included in the study had encountered counterfeit electronics during the four-year period.

• The number of incidents grew from 3,868 in 2005 to 9,356 in 2008.

OTE made several recommendations in the report. For example, in order to inhibit the circulation of counterfeit electronics, the OTE wants the US government to: (more…)

Enhanced awareness, improved monitoring and more stringent authentification criteria appear to be helping to reduce identity fraud in the US.

In fact, new research produced by Javelin Strategy & Research and sponsored by Fiserv, Intersections Inc. and Wells Fargo & Company, shows that approximately three million fewer adults were victimized by identity fraud in 2010, compared to 2009. That’s a 28 percent drop over the past year and the largest single-year decrease since Javelin started tracking data in 2003. It exceeds the combined decline from 2003-2007, when identity fraud started to increase again. Previously, the largest decrease in consumer fraud was 800,000 consumers between 2003 and 2004.

But, not all of the data in Javelin’s 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report was as positive.

The survey also found that: (more…)

It’s a typical good news/bad news scenario.

Results from the 2010 Identity Fraud Survey, released yesterday by Javelin Strategy & Research, show that fraud increased for the second straight year and is at the highest rate since Javelin began this report seven years ago.

That’s the bad news.

But here’s the good: the report also found that protection of data by consumers and businesses and enlisting assistance in resolution are helping resolve fraud more quickly and are also reducing or eliminating costs for the consumer.

This survey is the nation’s longest-running study of identity fraud, and in November 2009, Javelin conducted telephone interviews with 5,000 U.S. adults. Survey questions were designed  to identify and track the methods fraudsters used, the impact of fraud on Americans and how these findings can help consumers most effectively avoid becoming victims of fraud.

Here are a few details from the study that I thought were particularly interesting: (more…)

The economic downturn has provided a perfect storm of factors for business fraud, according to new research from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In its 5th annual Global Economic Crime Survey, PwC identifies three factors that make fraud “inevitable”: (more…)