More than half of Kiwi firms unprepared for cybercrime incidents

Economic crime is a business issue and not an IT or accounting issue – Eric Lucas, PwC NZ

Forty per cent of New Zealand organisations report their workplaces as being victimised by economic crime in the past two years (up from 33 per cent in 2014), according to PwC’s 2016 Global Economic Crime Survey.

PwC says this is higher than the global average of 36 per cent, but significantly below neighbouring Australia at 52 per cent.

New Zealand survey results found 42 per cent of fraud detection is through a tip-off, including formal whistleblowing services.

Corporate controls only accounted for detecting 24 per cent of crimes, which is significantly down from 56 per cent in 2014 at the time of the last survey.

While business confidence is high, fraud is an unfortunate downside for businesses and corporate detection methods are not keeping pace, says Eric Lucas, PwC Forensic Services Partner. “This points to a potentially worrying trend,” he states.

In a fast-moving digital world, being prepared is a living, breathing daily exercise which needs to be constantly updated so you are ready when threats turn into reality.Eric Lucas, PwC NZ

“Eighteen per cent of all economic crimes detected in New Zealand were by accident and there is too much being left to chance. Today more than ever before, a passive approach to economic crime is a recipe for disaster.

“Understanding your vision and strategically maintaining a plan for growth as well as defence, based on your unique threat landscape and profile, will be the difference.

“In a fast-moving digital world, being prepared is a living, breathing daily exercise which needs to be constantly updated so you are ready when threats turn into reality.”

Moreover, despite 40 per cent of New Zealand respondents saying they will likely be the victim of cybercrime over the next two years, only 45 per cent have an operational incident response plan and 9 per cent have a digital forensic investigator on their first responder teams.

“boards,” says Lucas, “but too many New Zealand organisations are not fully preparing for these threats.”

“In a fast-changing and digitally dependent market, many organisations are not well placed to avoid cybercrime attacks, or if subject to attack, respond to them. Only about half of boards ask for information regarding their organisation’s state of readiness to deal with cyber incidents.”

The State of Global Information Security 2016: The convergence of digital and cybersecurity

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