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Teching on crime
Grant Thornton’s Tom Townson talks to Chris Evans about the rise of financial and cybercrime and efforts to tackle it.
Financial cybercrime seems part of the world we live in now. What more should be done to tackle it? These stories in the news, especially the data breaches, add fuel to the fire because people’s names, addresses and personal financial details are still the bedrock of access to their accounts. For every breach, that information is out in the ether and is then used to access people’s accounts. I’m doing one big expert witness piece at the moment where someone has interposed themselves between a financial institution and a party expecting to receive a large payment. At the critical point, they either take over the recipient email account or they interpose themselves in some way and interact with the financial institution as if they were the party entitled to receive the money, then change their address, details and account destination.
If the controls at the financial institution and the oversight break down, then the payment gets diverted and we’re talking about millions in a single payment. That is unfortunately quite common, but also quite easy to address. There are technology and business controls available to prevent it from happening. But if both fail at the same time then it’s a big payday for the thieves.