Modus Operandi by Mauro Corvasce (universal ebook reader txt) 📕

each employee. The criminal simply inserted extra payroll reports into the system and removed them after the checks had been processed. Payroll checks were mailed to the nonexistent employees at a post office box from which the thief later retrieved them.

Accounts Receivable. The accounts receivable file can very well be the lifeblood of a company. It provides a reasonably complete listing of the company's customers, particularly the biggest ones, who would certainly be of interest to competitors. But most importantly, in many companies, the only records of money owed lies in the receivable file. If this file suddenly disappeared, could it be regenerated? Would the company be able to establish who owed what? If bills could not be sent out for a month or two and much of the monies owed were suddenly removed from the cash flow pipeline, could the company survive? A loss such as this could be fatal because the company is thrown on the mercy of its customers. Some pay, some don't. Bankruptcy is often the result.

Industrial Espionage. Computer crimes used to gain a competitive advantage are known as industrial espionage. Here the gain is the growth or increased profits of the competing company. Espionage is the practice of spying to obtain data or other information to gain unfair or dishonest advantages.

Operations Information. The marketing and sales files stored in a computer usually contain customer lists and sales records as well as compensation information for sales personnel. They could provide customer information and also reveal the salesmen who are most effective and the nature of their compensation plan. All this information will be of great interest to competitors.

Management information stored in a computer can also reveal many aspects of long-range operational planning. There is increased use of gaming techniques to predict the effectiveness of long-range options. The results of these studies often include a detailed performance analysis of various departments or divisions of the company. Such planning and gaming could be invaluable information to a competitor or supplier.

Sabotage. This is deliberate interference with the company's operation. Individuals perpetrating such crimes are usually looking for personal satisfaction such as settling a grudge rather than financial gain. Unions or activist groups may use sabotage to intimidate or blackmail management. Other activist groups may simply desire to draw public attention to a company whose activities are considered objectionable, unethical or illegal by these activists. An example of the groups might be anti-abortionists, environmentalists or animal rights activists.

Besides being susceptible to exploitation for financial gain, a data processing system is also susceptible to malicious damage, manipulation or destruction. The criminal may be an individual who feels he has not been given a fair deal by a company or it may be a striking labor union embroiled in negotiations with management. The intent here is to disrupt the company operations or blackmail the company by threatening such destruction.

At one time, Dow Chemical Company was a target of action groups opposing the Vietnam War. Its computer center was invaded and seriously damaged. The attackers had been thoroughly briefed; they understood the major points of vulnerability, and proceeded to effectively attack them. The cost to Dow was estimated at more than $1 million.

Banks and Financial Institutions. A small miscalculation of interest or service charges is generally not noticed by the customer. Multiplied by a large number of accounts, this small miscalculation can provide the criminal with a handsome annual bonus. From the institution's standpoint this type of embezzlement seldom raises suspicion until enough customers object. And, who really understands how that stuff is calculated? Most of us take it for granted that the interest on our bank statement is correct.

Borrowing funds, stocks or other assets is another form of fraud. For example: An accountant works for a firm handling a large corporation's account. He comes in over the weekend and transfers $30 to $40 million of a company's assets to his own personal account for a period of two days and then transfers them back on Sunday night, so it will not show up on Monday's posting. That employee can earn, over the course of a weekend, several hundred thousand dollars in interest.

We are aware of an individual who attempted this on one occasion, and as fate would have it, Murphy's Law ruled. While driving to the office late Sunday night to re-deposit the money back into the company's account, he was injured in a major accident and was hospitalized for three weeks. Needless to say when he left the hospital he went straight to the unemployment line!

Airline Reservation and Car Rental Systems. Since airline reservations and car rental systems rely heavily on data communications, wiretapping and other similar techniques can be used to obtain the information necessary to compromise the system. A terminal connection will provide access from which services can be obtained, after which the bills (computer records) may become lost (assigned to fictitious accounts) or fees reduced simply to nominal values. In the case of computerized car rental systems, an entire car's records can be shuffled through the agency until its auditing trail disappears. The entire car can then be made to disappear as well. In the case of airlines, baggage records are maintained on the main reservation file. Thus, it is possible to create a fictitious piece of baggage and then submit a claim for its loss.

Another computer scheme is electronic data capture. The way it works is you use a modem to manually enter credit card numbers. All you need is a list of numbers; you don't even need the card. Twenty-four hours later you have the money available to you and can draw out the money, leave town, and the local bank is left holding the bag. The bank wouldn't know about it until the customer gets his statement with the charge on it, which could be as much as forty-five days later, and reports that it's not their transaction. The charge reverts to the issuing bank and they are responsible for collecting the charge. This can