Hi-Tech-Consulting

Airports to Inspect ID Cards With Black Lights”
USA Today (01/21/08) P. A3 ; Frank, ThomasSecurity screeners in U.S. airports now use black lights to verify authenticity in passports and other official documents. Transportation Security Administration officials use the small, inexpensive black lights to illuminate holograms on passports and other IDs in order to spot forged or altered documents. Since June of last year, airport authorities have arrested more than 40 individuals attempting to pass through customs with fake documents, and many of those apprehended were charged with violations relating to immigration. TSA officials soon will use an estimated 2,100 lights at the nation’s 800 airports checkpoints, while also observing crowds for suspicious activity or behavior.
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“Eight Steps to Improve Business Security in 2008″
Small Business Computing (01/07/08) ; Simonds, Lauren

There are several ways companies can make their computer networks safer this year, the first being to keep all the business’ software and hardware operating with the most up-to-date versions and with all the latest security updates, which requires a patch management plan. Teaching staff about online security and a business’ individual protocols is also vital, as is combining network-based intrusion detection with host-based intrusion protection. A vulnerability study can scan a company’s operating system, networked servers, workstations, and printers to find areas where a business does not have the correct protection; it is smart to conduct this kind of assessment along with application-level testing. Content filtering keeps individuals on a company network from entering sites that management feels are not secure. As the majority of computers are equipped with some type of anti-virus protection, centralizing those networked desktops and being able to look at them from a single workstation makes it simpler and more efficient to implement, oversee, and maintain continual virus protection and thereby reduce exposure. Creating security rules and then overseeing them guarantees that workers are obeying those rules. Lastly, the majority of firms have sensitive data they wish to keep internal; to that end, an extrusion management solution keeps that information from exiting the network.
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“Corporate Crime on the Rise”
London Free Press (Canada) (12/17/07) ; Musgreave, John; Porter, Graham

Losses stemming from corporate crime have increased substantially over the last two years, though the majority of companies have faith in their existing fraud controls, according to results from PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC) 2007 global economic crime survey. The poll revealed that 43 percent of international survey respondents experienced corporate crime in 2007, and that their reported losses due to crime grew from $1.7 million in 2005 to $2.4 million in 2007, on average. Nevertheless, roughly half of the global companies polled believe it is “very unlikely” that they will suffer from corporate crime in the near future, says Bruce Webster of PwC. This perspective suggests that many organizations are insufficiently aware of the danger of corporate fraud. And while over 60 percent of Canadian companies surveyed have enhanced their security controls since 2005, 67 percent of those companies still lack fraud-related training programs, and 36 percent have not instituted a “whistleblower” hotline. Without such anti-fraud controls, companies put themselves at risk for economic crime and decrease the odds of detecting fraud, says Webster. Indeed, almost 40 percent of corporate crime incidents reported by Canadian businesses were discovered by chance. The survey also revealed that 30 percent of reported international fraud incidents were cases of asset misappropriation, which is the easiest type of fraud to identify; however, many businesses do not see asset misappropriation as a threat. Also, employees were to blame for the most grave fraud transgressions, according to 67 percent of victimized Canadian companies. The PwC survey notes that control systems must be supplemented by a robust corporate culture in order to detect and deter fraud, and that fraud controls must be routinely reviewed and updated.
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