International Fraud Awareness Week: Are We Doing Enough?
For the last 22 years, the security industry has been observing the 3rd week of November as International Fraud Awareness week – a global initiative to minimise the impact of fraud by promoting anti-fraud awareness and education. But how far have we come in those 22 years?
In the last two decades, digital or cyber fraud has increased by 1517%, and it’s not slowing down by any means. Even though organisations are spending billion in building the most resilient cyber defences, individual users are succumbing to fraudsters, easily giving away their assets, capital, or critical data.
So, how can we get ahead of this problem? We think that media and PR agencies must play a bigger role in communicating anti-fraud knowledge to the wider community.
The key takeaways from this year’s fraud awareness week
International Fraud Awareness Week, or simply Fraud Week, is an initiative that is very close to our hearts as cybersecurity PR specialists. The event was started by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) nearly 20 years ago in 2000.
Today, hundreds of organisations globally come together to spread awareness against fraud in their companies and communities. Holding fraud awareness training and spreading awareness is pivotal for an organisation’s bottom line.
A study by ACFE highlighted that providing fraud awareness training to employees helps decrease losses by fraud by about 38% and the duration of fraud decreased by 33%. This week provides a great opportunity to get creative with fraud-related education.
To support Fraud Awareness Week, official supporters have competed in fraud-related games, hosted companywide training, and publicly shared information about fraud awareness not only in their firms but also in their communities. This is a great way to not only host a company-wide team-building exercise but to also train employees against malpractices.
As a public relation organisation specialising in cybersecurity, we help cybersecurity giants spread awareness against malpractices. Our clients are pioneers in combating and coming up with creative solutions to debunk fraudulent practices.
Therefore, we are in an opportunistic position to gain insights from industry experts and cyber veterans and communicate them to the wider public. This responsibility has to be acknowledged and shared by every tech and security PR media in the industry, if we ever want to get ahead of this curve.
