The bank robber gets $1,400 and 20 years. The bank president that defrauds the bank of $2.2 million gets the boot. Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia. The headlines emphasize the growing concern of corporate crime at the highest level. Security cameras target the mailroom and loading dock but not the boardroom. Studies, including one from the American Society for Industrial Security, indicate that organizations lose multi-billions of dollars from white collar crime and that many still don’t take incidents to law enforcement authorities.
That’s all changing, however. The high profile incidents are pressuring many organizations to better protect themselves from themselves. Regulations are getting tougher. The fastest growing security association is composed of financial fraud investigators. But there’re still contentions: security directors and managers are hired and report to top management.