Price Waterhouse Coopers launched an impressive new web video series entitled The Front Line of Fraud & Corruption. The videos are part of an ongoing series examining how companies can use forensic services to defend against threats, respond to crises, and recover from incidents.
While the series is no doubt intended as a marketing tool for PwC's corporate services, the videos are nevertheless informative and are a good introduction to the field for corporate leaders. Security professionals will likely be familiar with most of the concepts discussed in the videos, but may find the videos will enhance their ability to communicate the need for risk assessment and mitigation within their organizations. The videos also touch on legal and regulatory issues that some security professionals may not be familiar with.
Price Waterhouse Coopers launched an impressive examining how companies can use forensic services to... [+]
Two videos stood out to me as particularly helpful for generalists. In "Leveraging Big Data for crisis management" the experts discuss how CEOs must remain cognizant of the data companies are creating, especially social data, because regulators, and litigators are using social media in enforcement and in law suits. They discuss how social media information can create opportunities and vulnerabilities, and how organizations can "war game" to prevent crises from materializing.
A second interesting video, "Knowing what's expected of third parties" features PwC expert Sulaksh Shah and Matthew Miner, an attorney from the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. They discuss how managers can use data to identify the most significant risks to business operations, and then conduct deeper mitigation measures to address those risks.
Not surprisingly, in light of the role of third parties have played in recent data breaches (for example, the Target data breach was made possible through a third party HVAC company, and third parties are also the most likely to be involved in bribery and corruption when operating abroad), the experts focus on the need for organizations to conduct deeper risk assessments of third party contractors and providers. Miner, (the attorney) noted that nearly 90% of FCPA bribery cases originate with a third party vendor, and that this is a significant area of risk for companies. Shah further explained that SEC officials have questioned why any company would treat third party vendors differently than members of their own company, and Shah has highlighted the need to audit third parties.
The entire video series is a very helpful overview of various business risk scenarios, mitigation techniques, and some topics related to emergent regulatory issues. It's the kind of series that corporate leaders, attorneys, and some security professionals will find useful.
Gregory S. McNeal is a professor specializing in law and public policy. You can follow him on Twitter @GregoryMcNeal or on Facebook.
