Top Ten Fraud Prevention Tips for Small Businesses, Tip #4: Top-Down Corporate Ethics

Alex Helfand, ENCE

As a small business owner or senior executive, it is your responsibility to promote integrity and ethical values to your employees and implement the proper controls and procedures to prevent fraud.  In this series, we are highlighting ten basic fraud prevention steps you can take to keep your organization safe.

As accountants, we often witness instances where strong employee ethics have prevented fraud.   As required by Statements on Auditing Standards No. 99 for financial statement audits, auditors interview […]

Telemarketing: Is it Legitimate or a Fraud?

John Merchant, CPA, CFE

At some point, you have probably received a phone call from a telemarketer trying to convince you to take advantage of an exceptional deal or asking you to contribute to a worthwhile charity.  Beware of such calls.  Fraud in telemarketing has become so serious that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has posted warnings, describing some of the schemes and what you should do to protect yourself from them.

One of the popular scams is to call and […]

Top Ten Fraud Prevention Tips for Small Businesses

Alex Helfand, ENCE

It is hard to flip through a business publication or scan the news without seeing or hearing about fraud.  Although a majority of these stories involve large corporations, small to medium businesses are still at risk for fraudulent activity.   There are more incentives and pressures for companies to outperform and more financial hardships for employees overcome than ever before.  Every business manager or professional must maintain some level of skepticism

Even if your company has never experienced any […]

The Next Hacking Epidemic: Curiosity

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

A wide variety of items can be found discarded on the street, and some – such as a wallet, cell phone, or USB thumb drive – can prove quite valuable, or even malicious.  A curious person walking by who picks up the items might not suspect they are in a sting operation, but a recent study by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has found that hackers might exploit human curiosity and use items […]

Internet Access: Is Your Data Secure? (Part 3 of 3)

John Merchant, CPA, CFE

We have previously discussed wireless internet connections from hotels and stores and some of the things that you can do to protect your data.  But, what other steps can you take, even when accessing the Internet from your own home or business?

One of the greatest dangers you face when browsing the Internet and accessing sites that are unknown to you is from viruses and other malicious infections of your computer that are spread from malware sites.  […]