DIERCKX & ASSOCIATES LTD

I have heard it a thousand times. Fraud and loss of company assets including the nowadays highly important data is like a sexually transmitted disease: many people have it but no one talks about it.

“Not in my business I would know.”

An employee takes home a number of stationary items, paper, cissors, pencils, markers, and some other ’small items’ like rubber, pencil sharpener. The holiday season is about to start an hey you want stuff at home to keep the children occupied and entertained. An employee  is making overtime before the company closes down for Christmas. Here you thought he was working hard so as to ensure that he would not leave a mess for he successor after he leaves the company to work for the competition. You were not able to offer him the reward that the competitor did. A sad loss. It turns out that he has been copying all kinds of sensitive documents, client lists, supplier agreements and much more. I bet it is not to complement his photo album in which he keeps his memories. Have you not wondered why the competitor would pay him so much more for basically the same type of work? Well, very likely you will find yourself confronted with a competitor that knows more than he should about your business and is not afraid to use it for his own benefit. It almost seems at times that practices like this have become normal.

We are all fighting so hard to survive these times of financial instability. We are all looking to the new year that will hopefully be better. Yet, our attention and efforts in relation to (information and asset risk) appear to be put in the bottom drawers of our desk. A missed chance. Your drawers should be overflowing with questions about your security, fraud an infomation risk.

DO YOU KNOW HOW VULNERABLE YOUR COMPANY IS?  DO YOU HAVE APPROPRIATE INCIDENT RESPONSES IN PLACE? And I am deliberately formulating the question like this as there is no organisation that can claim that their integrity risk management system is 100% safe. Such a system does not exist. Figures show that the risks have been rising for several reasons, with an almost one in two change that a business, YOUR BUSINESS will be hit by some sort of fraud or asset misappropriation in the coming year.

I am asking you: if you knew that the odds were like that for driving your car what would you do? Either stop driving it because of this risk or take measures as good as possible to ensure you would not end up in an accident and where unavoidable to ensure your safety was protected as good as possible would you not? Sadly enough the same  approach is not identified when it comes to safeguarding the asssets of your business, and with that potentially the life of your businesses.

Especially in the current unstable times, integrity, ethics and loyalty are less of a consideration for employees and management for that matter. Personal interests stand first in line especially where this offers a realistuc change of personal benefit, financially, in terms of (new) job security, property, status, even when that may have to involve using illegitimate, illegal or even criminal means.

At the same time these matters are most often not high on the agenda of organisations’ boards or senior managements. Perhaps in the form of ‘governance’ as that is the buzz word in the New Zealand business community without a doubt thanks to the promotional efforts of associations such as the Institute of Directors or the New Zealand Management Insititite. Yet this does not always have an appropriate attention for your actual risks and vulnerabilities. Sure, we understand the importance of asset risk management and that our assets should be safeguarded against misappropriations, but do we actually act on that.

“Not now, we are to busy with keeping the business going in these tough times”

or

“not right now because we are too busy with the business in these good times.”

Another reason not to give strategic risk management too high a priority:

“I would know if something was wrong.”

And then when things have gone terribly wrong, we all don’t seem to understand how this could have happened right under our own eyes. Well, it is either because you were not looking or because you did not recognize what you had been seeing all the time.

So often, people like myself are called in after the horse has already died. Many times, victim organisations end up not receovering the losses or even go under once the extent of the damages of theft and fraud become apparent.

No system can ever prevent 100% percent that fraud or theft cannot and will not take place. What you can do however is considerably reduce your chances of becoming the next statistic.

• DO YOU ACTUALLY KNOW YOUR RISKS, THREATS  AND VULNERABILITIES?
• DO YOU AND YOUR EMPLOYEES RECOGNIZE THE SIGNS THAT SOMETHING MAY BE WRONG?
• DO YOU KNOW HOW HOW HAPPY AND LOYAL YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE? ARE YOU AWARE OF THEIR ACTUAL CONCERNS?
• DO YOU NOW HOW YOUR EMPLOYEES DEAL WITH THE ETHICAL DILEMMAS THAT ARE INEVITABLE WHERE PEOPLE WORK AND PLAY?
• DO YOUR EMPLOYEES HAVE A CLEAR GRASP OF WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT ALLOWED?
• DO YOU KNOW WHETHER EVERYONE IS WORKING ACCORDING TO THE RULES? ARE THE RULES ACTUALLY CLEAR? ARE THEY AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE?
• DO EMPLOYEES KNOW WHERE TO GO WITH THEIR CONCERNS?
• HOW LOYAL ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES REALLY? DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT THEIR EMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYER?
• DO YOU HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR YOUR SHRINK AND INFORMATION LEAKAGES? IS THAT EXPLANATION BASED ON WHAT YOU THINK HAPPENED OR ON ACTUAL EVIDENCE?
• HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT YOUR COMPETITORS MAY BE ABLE TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOU EVEN WITHOUT BREAKING THE RULES?
• DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE COPYING ONTO THEIR USB-STICKS AND/OR PDA?
• DO YOU HAVE INCIDENT RESPONSE PROCEDURES IN PLACE IN THE CASE OF SECURITY BREACHES AND INCIDENTS?
• DO YOU HAVE AN APPROPRIATE SYSTEM OF INTERNAL CONTROL IN PLACE?
• DID YOU CONSIDER THAT YOU COULD ALREADY BE A VICTIM AND WHAT IS IN PLACE TO COPE WITH THE INEVITABLE DAMAGES?
• DO YOU ACTUALLY KNOW YOUR EMPLOYEES AND THEIR BACKGROUNDS?

These are just a few of the questions you could ask yourself and if there is any question you cannot answer with a very definite, facts based answer, it is time you make a New Years resolution to address these matters. Your business life may depend on it and with that the family lives of yourself and your employees.

Give your business a Christmas present and start the New Year being informed, aware and prepared.

At Dierckx & Associates we have several programs available for you that will help you identify your threats and vulnerabilities, adddress the issue integrity and ethics in the form of assessements, consulting services, training and seminars. Nothing off the shelf, we believe in tailor made for your organisation.

You, your business and your employees are worth it.

And you will find that creating an environment of integrity and honesty does not necessarily involves highly expensive programs and measures. It will very likely actualy contribute positively to the performance of your business. Don’t wait until it is too late, and make 2010 the year you established what your actual risks and vulnerabilities are; the year you started to take integrity and risk serious so that the following year end holiay you can look back and see the difference, in employee wellbeing and performance.

Contact us for more information about our integrity management programs, assessments and seminars. And keep on visiting us as more information will be placed on the site over the same Christmas Holidays.

Filed under: COMPANY NEWS, FRAUD DETECTION, FRAUD PREVENTION, INFORMATION SECURITY, INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT, INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUES, OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD AND ABUSE, PRODUCTS/SERVICES, RISK MANAGEMENT, SAFE HIRING