With twelve-month losses possibly ranging from R40 million to R800 million, the bottom-line results of at least 13 South African companies have apparently been compromised by recent economic crime.
Evidence of these losses comes from a report by Price Waterhouse Coopers. Based on what is claimed to be the world's largest survey of economic crime (The PwC Sixth Global Economic Crime Survey), the report suggests that 11% of the 123 local companies surveyed had suffered losses of between $5 million to $100 million as a result of economic crime in the previous year.
Given so many organisations' heavy reliance on ICT systems, Business Connexion recognises that unauthorised access and activity within these systems is an integral part of the losses caused by economic crime.
As Rob Bothma, Pre-sales specialist, Q Data DynamiQue, at Business Connexion, points out: “Corporate assets are almost inevitably governed by some form of ICT. From stock control and payroll, through to customer data and a whole variety of other sensitive information, managing who can access these systems and what they can do within them is clearly critically important.”
Governing ICT access and activity with nothing more than cards, PINs and passwords creates major risks.
In association with Ideco, SA's largest distributor of biometric technology, Business Connexion has extensive experience of reducing risk through the use of fingerprint biometrics to control physical access. Within its loss-reducing workforce management solutions, Business Connexion has, for the past seven years, been replacing credentials such as access cards and PINs with Morpho fingerprint scanners.
“It is well known that the exploitation of conventional credentials lies at the very heart of most corporate cyber crimes. The fact that anyone can use your card, PIN or password is obviously an undermining factor within ICT security,” says Bothma.
Marius Coetzee, MD of Ideco, is adamant that exposure to economic crime can be reduced dramatically by introducing biometric authentication for authorised users of corporate systems. “It is an established fact that biometric-based solutions are cutting risks and losses by reinforcing physical access control and accurately managing people's attendance at thousands of organisations across southern Africa.
“With a locally developed product called SuperSign, we are now working with Business Connexion to extend the proven benefits of biometrics to securely control access and activity control in corporate ICT systems.”
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