Dubai: Cyber breaches and insider threats are the fastest-growing risks among Middle East and North Africa (Mena) businesses, and are driving investment in forensic data analytics (FDA), according to EY’s 2016 Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey,
The threats and breaches include malicious insiders stealing, manipulating or destroying data.
Sixty-nine per cent said that they need to do more to improve their current anti-fraud procedures, including the use of FDA tools. Notably, this figure increased to 74 per cent for the C-suite cohort.
Of those respondents citing regulatory pressure as the reason to improve their procedures, C-suite respondents were found to be the most concerned as regulatory enforcement becomes more rigorous and widespread.
Mike Adlem, Mena Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services Leader at EY, said in a statement that cybercrime and insider threats are an everyday reality, posing a dynamic and relentless challenge. In Mena, 40 per cent of businesses consider this risk to have increased, however globally more than 60 per cent of businesses say the risk has increased.
This may be due to “lower awareness” in Mena as well as “increasing regulatory pressures” being applied in other regions.
“Businesses in Mena need to continue to raise risk awareness with management and prepare for the expected increased regulatory pressures that will be applied in the future. The use of FDA should form a critical component of risk management and compliance programs and be applied in both a proactive and reactive manner,” he said.
When looking at the current use of FDA tools to investigate incidents or manage risk, he said the survey found that internal fraud risk ranks highest for the application of FDA at 77 per cent, and cyber breach or insider threat risk ranks second at 70 per cent.
Increased FDA investment:
With just 55 per cent of respondents saying that their FDA spend is sufficient, a drop from 64 per cent from 2014 survey, he said that it is no surprise that three out of five say that they plan to spend more on FDA in the next two years.
“The use of advanced FDA is becoming mainstream, with new technologies and surveillance monitoring techniques widely used to help companies manage current and emerging fraud and cyber risks. The rising maturity of corporate FDA efforts is also evident through the growing sophistication in their use of data,” Adlem said.
Paul Marsters, Director of MENA Forensic Technology & Discovery Services at EY, said that given the level of pressure on fraud prevention that organisations in MENA are facing, it is no surprise that the majority of respondents are expending more effort on proactive initiatives.
“With technology becoming increasingly sophisticated, the opportunity to drive value from FDA efforts is improving. If the FDA plans are aligned with businesses investments in broader Data Analytics, then there is a great opportunity to raise FDA benefits case and awareness to executives,” Marsters said.
