The rate of fraud in Uganda’s financial institution is on the increase. Just like any industry, communication (or transfer of data and voice) is at the center of the success of the banking business. Banking business processes are highly automated, with technology as a critical success factor. All the communication media are at risk – email, chat, wire transfer, web, phone, SMS, payment platforms via HTTP and https, fax, and application programming interface (API) points and a plethora of other hardware platforms like cables, thumb drives, mobile devices, and DVDs. The exposure is both at bank and service provider levels.…
The Internet wizkid – computer fraud in a bank in Kenya
XY, a financial institution, suffered US $504,000 loss in fraudulent transactions. The culprits did it by: (i) gaining access to the super administrator (“sa”) password through social engineering. The “sa” password is required to access the live banking application database and the Head of ICT and Managing Director keep its custody under dual control. The bank’s system admin accessed the Head of ICT’s notebook and got part 1 of the password. He then tricked the MD’s to have his computer updated with a recent patch contrary to the normal procedure where an external firm provides such maintenance service under a…
Bank loan fraud scheme uncovered
After several years of investigating fraud, I have come to the realization that in many cases, internal staff are involved in one way or the other. It is so difficult to pull off a fraud without involving an insider. When it comes fraud examination, everyone is a suspect until proven otherwise. I have found it important to take everyone’s statement to account for their time, roles and activities immediately before, during and after the fraud or theft incident. Looking carefully through those statements, you get to realize how some of their information is inconsistent either in an attempt to protect…
Why lawyers must understand technology
Getting lawyers to appreciate technology is a difficult task indeed. As technology transforms the legal practice, electronically stored information (ESI) is a big addition to the paper evidence as the lawyer’s primary stock in trade. This is the future of the legal profession – ESI and ability to mine, analyze and make sense of lots of data. Contemporary law firms are leaders in big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Imagine a software that can predict a magistrate’s or jury’s decision upon in putting case facts. Digital evidence is now critical than ever. And it keeps increasing as precedence is…
How to turn rejection in your career into an advantage
All people have at one time in their lives faced rejection. The important thing is to understand the cause of the rejection so that you may work on fixing it. Is the rejection a reject of lack of requisite skills, qualifications and experience or due to laziness and general poor attitude towards work. Or it is just tribal or a racist rejection? To turn a rejection into an advantage, focus on the root cause of the rejection. That is why it is important you always seek to meet the person in the company that rejected you to determine why they…
Role of the board in Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery (BCP/ DR)
No company should get ready. It should stay ready. That way, there are no surprises. The case of fire at one of Toyota offices in Kampala that led to loss of a brand-new car worth over US $100,000 to fire is still. Indeed, many disasters have happened and caused some businesses to collapse altogether. The easiest solution to such risk management is insurance. However, one must insure risk which is transferable. Risks like loss of goodwill, reputation, intellectual property and inconveniences are not transferable and therefore cannot be solved by insurance. Accordingly, Insurance cannot pay for lost time, goodwill and…
