30 May 2008

Computer Crime Needs Management and Education

John Sterlicchi, US Bureau Chief,

A US university researcher has devised an antifraud strategy for business, indicating that reports of computer fraud only represent a tip of a potentially large iceberg.

Opportunistic computer fraud could be minimized simply by raising mangers’ awareness and knowledge of how organizational structure can affect the effectiveness of security measures. Two main insights to the new research focus on teaching management and subtly communicating management’s new found knowledge to employees.

“Lack of awareness of social and technical issues among managers largely manifest themselves in a failure to implement even the most basic safeguards and controls,” Shalini Kesar, a computer scientist at the Southern Utah University, wrote in the International Journal of Business Information Systems from Inderscience Publishers.

According to Kesar, combating digital fraud within any organization is a growing problem for management as researchers and security practitioners have recently begun to emphasize the need to take into account the social aspects of information security.

“Computer fraud can result from incompetence, ignorance, negligence in the use of information technology or deliberate misappropriation by individuals,” Kesar said. “This results in the destruction of not only the main information systems but also backup systems, causing damages up to hundreds and thousands of dollars.”

In addition, the research suggests that very few cases of computer fraud had been reported and that employees pose one of the greatest threats because they are in a better position than outsiders to engage in computer fraud.

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