There couldn’t have been a rougher start to the new decade, right? Initially emerging in China and Italy, depending on who you ask, the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic ripped through the world. The devastating casualty and infection rate was horrific enough. But it was quickly followed by a crash in the global economy. With no end in sight to the uncertainty, many businesses had to lay off workers or furlough them temporarily.
Surprisingly, however, only a little over a year later, the economy is already showing real signs of recovery. A majority of the workforce is now back in employment and businesses are beginning to expand profit streams. More importantly, vaccines have emerged as a hope of a return to life as we used to know it, far sooner than we thought. However, the vaccines aren’t the only new phenomenon to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The work-from-home model has opened up vulnerabilities that didn’t exist before, creating much higher levels of new fraud risks. This also changes not just investigative and preventive methods, but also what happens after a workplace investigation.
Explore what these are and how thriving businesses are facing them head-on.
Fake Government Program Scammers
Many businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, have suffered immensely over the past 2 decades. Many are still in need of any financial injection available. To help such businesses out, many governments began offering relief programs to ensure businesses stay solvent enough to pay their workers and meet operational expenses.
As a small business owner, you are probably open to the idea of any government-sponsored financial relief at this point. However, there are still other pressing challenges that your business survival hinges on. The nature of most business applications can be confusing, which is why businesses these days hire an “expert” to file the application, in return for a fair remuneration. However, these “experts” can very frequently turn out to be scammers. They may be misappropriating funds needed for the application, as well as stealing confidential business information. With hiring processes being disrupted already, it is easier for someone with faked credentials to slip through. Therefore, vigilance is more than necessary, it is critical.
Remote Worker Fraud
Remote working does have its perks. It may very well turn out to be the most workable alternative to conventional workplaces. However, the current model is makeshift, at best. Even the cloud service providers you use did not foresee mass dependency on their systems and tools. While remote working models carry significant benefits and tangible cost savings for many businesses, they also carry an increased risk of fraud.
Specifically, worker fraud in an environment that can’t be monitored as meticulously as the average workplace. This is not to say all workers commit frauds when not being watched. But businesses need to address placing security and control measures that are adequate enough to monitor employees with access to sensitive data without infringing on their privacy.
Cyberattacks On Remote Workers
Even if your employees are honest, dedicated workers, they are still susceptible to cyberattacks. Businesses typically have some form of company-wide network protection. This also includes entry nodes such as laptops or mobile devices that connect to the company network. But when working remotely, workers are connecting to your company servers via an external network. As long as they have a secure and malware-free device, this is great.
However, if a worker falls victim to a phishing scam, a cyberattack, or loses their device, the risk of unauthorized access/fraud to company data increases dramatically. The cyber attacker could choose to do anything from holding your information for ransom, spying on you for less ethical competitors, sell your information directly to competitors, or organizations that resell this information. The catastrophic outcomes are fairly obvious. Businesses need to frequently reinforce healthy skepticism and modern security habits among their workforce. Additional security layers like multi-factor authentication may also help.
Fictitious Supply Chain Vendors
Businesses rely on a streamlined supply chain to continue operating smoothly. Most have vendors that they have cultivated over years for favorable rates and the right quality control processes. Many businesses, for example, those manufacturing consumer goods, raw materials, parts, or other inputs need to match exact quality standards and specifications. Otherwise, they reduce the quality of the final product or else lead to delays while replacements are sought.
With the pandemic disrupting logistics worldwide, business supply chains are in varying degrees of disarray. Cut off from their usual vendors, many have had to look elsewhere for easier material or parts sourcing. Unfortunately, this has presented an opportunity for fraudulent vendors to pop up on vendor listing platforms. They advertise extremely low prices with flattering product quality descriptions. However, they typically vanish once you pay them. And you don’t just lose money, but your manufacturing schedule falls apart too. As a rule, only work with a new vendor that is recommended by someone you know, and only after carefully researching and vetting the said company.