news
SAS research
finds procurement
fraud ravages
business in EMEA
ew research from SAS has
revealed more than 37% of
EMEA businesses suffer from
travel and expenses fraud. Procurement
fraud occurs when employees and
suppliers behave fraudulently during the
contract bidding process or over the
course of the contract.
N
This can range from employees colluding
with their preferred vendor to give unfair
advantage during procurement, to
suppliers submitting multiple invoices for
a single item or service.
While procurement fraud is a serious
crime that in many countries carries
a jail sentence, perpetrators are often
willing to take the risk for personal
revenge or financial gain.
Financial losses caused by fraud
and processing errors are no longer
hypothetical numbers. SAS research
reveals that over a quarter of EMEA
companies lose approximately between
AED40,000 and 600,000 every year.
A total of 18% reported up to about
AED40,000 losses annually and
almost 12% reported between
approximately AED600,000 and
1,650,000 losses annually. More than
AED1,650,000 losses have been
detected by 3.7% respondents.
“These figures only reflect the tip of the
iceberg,” said Celal Kavuklu, Head of
Business Solutions, SAS Middle East.
“Procurement fraud is rapidly
increasing and is notoriously difficult to
detect and measure. This is due to
a lack of awareness and preparedness,
as well as its bugbear status
among businesses. As a result, the
magnitude of the challenge is most
certainly underestimated.”
12
APRIL 2019’S ‘MOST WANTED
MALWARE’ SHOWS RETURN OF
BANKING TROJAN
heck Point Research, the
threat intelligence arm of
Check Point, has published
its Global Threat Index for April 2019.
The banking trojan Trickbot has
returned to the Index’s top 10 for the
first time in almost two years.
C
Multi-purpose banking trojans such
as Trickbot have been a popular
choice for cybercriminals looking for
financial gain. Trickbot campaigns
increased sharply in April, with
several American Tax Day-themed
spam campaigns timed to coincide
with the deadline for individual
income tax returns in the US.
The spam campaigns spread Excel
file attachments that download
Trickbot to victims’ computers to
spread across networks, collect
banking details and possibly steal tax
documents for fraudulent use.
While April’s three most common
malware variants were cryptominers,
the remaining seven of the top 10 were
multi-purpose trojans. This highlights
the shift in tactics used by criminals to
maximise their financial returns from
campaigns, following the closure of
several popular cryptomining services
and the decline in cryptocurrency values
over the past year.
Maya Horowitz, Threat Intelligence and
Research Director at Check Point, said:
“This month both Trickbot and Emotet
made it to the top 10 malware list. This is
especially worrisome, given the fact that
both botnets are nowadays used not only
to steal private data and credentials but
also to spread the Ryuk ransomware.”
Issue 14
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