Inside jobs are still a threat

Fraud is still a major threat to businesses and is easier than it should be

One quarter of professionals have witnessed fraudulent activity involving business documents according to a new survey.

More than two thirds of senior finance and IT professionals believe that insider fraud involving business documents is possible within their organisations and a quarter have witnessed document tampering by a member of staff.

This is according to a survey carried out by document management and imaging software company, Version One. Version One carried out the research with 91 senior finance and IT professionals from a range of UK public, private and third sector organisations.

The results from the same survey carried out by Version One five years’ ago reveal that there has been a minimal decrease in the number of senior professionals who believe that someone in their organisation would be able to tamper with or ‘lose’ a document to suit their ends. Results also reveal a 13% decrease in the number of professionals who have witnessed fraudulent activity involving business documents.

In the 2007 survey, 73% of survey respondents stated that a document could be fraudulently tampered with by a member of staff. In addition, in 2007, 38% of respondents admitted that they had come across activity that could be considered fraudulent involving business documents.

The UK National Fraud Authority’s latest annual fraud indicator estimates that the loss to the UK economy from fraud is around £73bn a year.

Greg Ford, Version One's managing director, says, “The survey results highlight that internal fraud remains a real risk. Although it is encouraging that fewer people appear to be committing and able to commit internal fraud involving business documents, the figures remain alarming.”

He adds: “If insider fraud is to be effectively tackled, organisations need to invest in fraud detection and prevention solutions, such as a secure electronic document management system. By using such a system, documents can’t be tampered with, lost or shredded and by ensuring that the system is based on strict levels of authorisation, this makes it extremely difficult for staff to manipulate documents.”