Online Fraud
Businesses that sell products online have much great risk of fraud than traditional brick and mortar establishments. Fraud is a serious risk for all online retailers and the number of reported cases increases each year. In 2004, online fraud cost merchants $2.6 billion. The damage done to business that experience fraud can potentially take years to recover, if the business can recover at all.
Business Implications
The implications of online fraud are extensive, requiring a paradigm shift in security in order to avoid losses due to criminal activities. No longer can security be an after-thought, it is a critical component of business intelligence, planning and strategy.
As the Internet became main stream, businesses had to protect themselves against hackers that caused temporary outages, denial of service and defacement. Today, business still need protect themselves against hackers, but now they also have to protect themselves against criminals that access systems and steal data in order to sell it for profit. Another disturbing trend involves criminals finding security holes and extorting money from businesses in order to protect the publicizing of the vulnerability.
Business intelligence needs to incorporate criminal intelligence by means of risk assessments. Businesses need to defend against cyber-criminals by broadening the security programs to include personnel, physical and financial assets as well as services. Businesses need to monitor all activities, including those of business partners. Background checks should be run on any person or organization that is linked to the business systems. Businesses offering financial services also need to prevent mon ...