Are your clients still unconvinced about cyber crime? Canadian business lists cyber crime as one of the top five economic crimes, with more than one in five stating their firms have already been victims, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP report.
PwC published the Canadian supplement to its 2014 Global Economic Crime Survey (GECS) this week. For 2014, 36 per cent of Canadian respondents reported their firms had been victims of economic crime, up from 32 per cent in 2011.
“We have to also consider that a significant percentage of those who did not report cyber crime may have suffered an event - and not even know about it,” said Steven Henderson, PwC Canada's national forensic services leader. “The bottom line is that much of the damage created by these attacks is not disclosed.”
More than one in 10 stated that economic crime has cost their companies more than $5 million.
The most common economic crime was asset misappropriation, defined as theft of assets including monetary, cash, equipment and supplies, by employees or directors. Fifty-eight per cent of Canadian respondents who were victims of economic crime reported they had been subject to asset misappropriation. One in three reported they had been subjected to procurement fraud while 14 per cent of Canadian respondents reported experiencing bribery or corruption.
When asked if their company recently pursued a market with a high corruption risk, 38 per cent said yes, 56 per cent said no and 6 per cent said they do not know. (continued.)
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“Both domestic and foreign bribery and corruption has become a major concern in Canada over the past few years,” Henderson stated. “Companies face not only investigative costs, penalties and fines, but could face long-term reputational damage impacting the value of the company. It is critical for Canadian companies to ensure they assess their current bribery and corruption risk, and implement a robust anti-bribery and corruption compliance program to address these risks.”
Reported losses due to economic crime:
More than $100 million 0%
$5-$100 million 11%
$100,000-$5 million 44%
Less than $100,000 42%
When asked to estimate losses from cyber crime, 45 per cent of respondents said they had no loss while 17 per cent said they did not know. One in four reported losses of up to $50,000.
Reported losses due to cybercrime
$5-100 million 4%
$1-5 million 1%
$100,000-$1 million 4%
$50,000-$100,000 4%
“According to Canadian survey respondents, more than half (61 per cent) of fraud perpetrators were internal and 39 per cent were external,” PwC stated. “The survey found that the profile of a typical fraudster is middle-aged with a college education or higher who has been with the organization for a substantial amount of time.”
Typical" cyber crimes include distribution of viruses, illegal downloads of media, phishing and pharming and theft of personal information, according to the report.
