Because cybercriminals constantly invent new ways to steal, organizations value professionals with the insights and expertise to protect their financial and digital assets, processes and controls.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts public and private sector employers will create nearly 13,000 new positions for financial examiners by 2032 (a 20% increase). Combined with a median annual salary of $82,210 for the role, this demand provides an opportunity for economic crime forensics specialists.
How Do Business Professionals Prepare for a Career in Economic Crime Forensics?
La Salle University’s online Master of Science (M.S.) in Economic Crime Forensics with a Specialization in IT and Cybersecurity Policy program prepares graduates for roles as fraud examiners, forensics investigators and compliance auditors. In those roles, professionals evaluate and support accounting and auditing concepts related to the cause of corporate economic crime. Other responsibilities include developing litigation services, creating conflict-of-interest policies and establishing processes to deter fraud.
La Salle’s online program includes a Fraud Detection and Prevention: Special Cases course that equips graduates with expertise and insights in environments at high risk of fraud and strategies to address these concerns.
How Is Risk Mitigation Related to Fraud Detection and Prevention?
According to Kaufman Rossin, stopping economic crime before it happens is ideal, but ironclad risk mitigation is virtually impossible in a connected environment where bad actors relentlessly explore controls to find vulnerabilities.
“Fraud prevention is implemented through preventive controls,” Kaufman Rossin advises. Those controls include screening applicants, implementing data security measures that limit access to digital assets and building firewalls around internal processes and transactional authority.
Fraud detection is related to prevention but a distinct risk-mitigation strategy. The CPA firm notes that the most common detection methods are tips about suspicious financial activities and whistleblower hotlines.
Process controls to identify criminal activities and innocent errors are vital fraud management strategies. Those controls can include financial reconciliations, independent audits and analyses, and a physical count and verification of assets to ensure they match the recorded quantities.
Why Is Cybersecurity Necessary in Economic Crime Detection and Prevention?
Traditionally, cybersecurity and economic crime risk mitigation have operated separately. However, Forbes recommends that organizations integrate the defense of digital assets with protection of financial resources: “Cybersecurity professionals know very well that a system is only as strong as its weakest part…Unfortunately, many organizations have not translated this valuable knowledge into their fraud practices.”
Cybercriminals commit economic crimes in several ways. Among them is money laundering, which is often related to financial statement fraud. Penetrating financial IT networks from outside the organization and often from within it, criminals manipulate financial data to siphon off assets and create the false appearance of financial health, profitability and stability. Meanwhile, they move the stolen funds through complex computer networks and fraudulent shell companies to produce false documentation and evade regulatory controls.
Identity theft is another form of economic crime on a sharp upward trajectory. Armed with sensitive personal information stolen through internet scams, cybercriminals empty bank accounts or fraudulently apply for credit in victims’ names. Moreover, malicious actors steal employee information to create deep fakes that exploit vulnerabilities to access financial assets.
What Are Trends in Fraud Detection and Prevention?
Generative AI (GenAI) is disrupting asset protection strategies, according to InfoQ. GenAI’s ability to learn, coupled with the capacity to manage complex and expanding datasets, enables it to quickly spot irregularities in high-risk areas with greater certainty.
Integrating machine learning tools with GenAI supports an emerging anti-fraud strategy: AI Risk Decisioning. InfoQ predicts that “Through the integration of generative AI and conventional machine learning, this methodology provides a holistic resolution to the always-evolving fraud scene.”
Using new strategies like AI Risk Decisioning, financial forensics will strengthen national security and protect corporate financial assets. Writing for financial services provider SuperMoney, Alessandra Nicole states that in the national security realm, fraud detection plays a vital role in uncovering the illegal flow of funds that uncover organized crime and terrorist networks. Due to this rising need for economic crime forensics specialists, Indeed ranks financial examiner second on its list of 21 highest-demand federal jobs.
Nicole writes that in the private sector, organizations rely on economic crime forensics professionals to design “robust accounting and auditing systems to manage, identify, and reduce financial risks… Preventing financial crimes has become a key focus in today’s financial landscape.”
Through La Salle University’s online M.S. in Economic Crime Forensics – IT and Cybersecurity Policy program, students gain the in-demand knowledge and skills to detect and address economic crime.
Learn more about La Salle University’s online M.S. in Economic Crime Forensics with a Specialization in IT and Cybersecurity Policy program.