Commando News Aug16

A Growing Part of the Law Enforcement
Community – Is a Career in Financial
Crime Fighting Right for You?
It is no secret that financial crime has been on the rise. From
the well-known Ponzi scheme orchestrated and executed by
Bernard Madoff, to countless smaller scale cyber attacks and
identity thefts, the bad guys are increasingly going online in
search of victims.
The Australian Crime Commission conservatively estimates
that serious and organised crime costs Australia $15 billion every
year. This cost comprises loss of business and taxation revenues,
expenditure on law enforcement and regulatory efforts, and social
and community impacts of crime.
Law enforcement has taken notice, and the field of financial
crime fighting has been growing as well. In addition to dedicated
law enforcement and government personnel fighting financial
crime, private companies are also hiring professionals to detect
and prevent break-ins to their networks. If you have an interest
in law enforcement and fighting crime and a high degree of tech
savvy, a career in financial crime detection and prevention could
be the right choice for you.
People who work in the field of financial crime prevention
take on a number of different roles and work for a wide variety of
governmental agencies, public institutes and private companies.
An IT expert with advanced training in cybersecurity may be
employed by a Fortune 500 company to detect flaws in the
network infrastructure and make recommendations for enhancing
the security of the system. A financial crimes expert employed by
a government agency may review the policies and procedures in
place and look for ways to make those processes more secure for
end users. No matter what role they play, the need for financial
crime prevention specialists is expected to grow substantially over
the next decade.
The growing number of cyber threats has caused many
companies — both large, international firms and smaller
businesses — to reevaluate their network security. The severe
financial penalties assessed to companies that fail to safeguard
information more than justify the cost of hiring an expert in
financial crime prevention, so the job market is likely to remain
strong for many years to come.
The day to day job of the financial crime prevention specialist
will vary depending on where they work and the role they play.
Some financial crime prevention specialists are asked to analyze
and review existing caseloads of suspected fraud — picking out
the cases that are most likely to involve fraud. An IT worker with
a background in preventing financial fraud may also be asked to
tweak existing systems to prevent false positives and make the
detection process more precise.
Others in the financial crime prevention field work directly
with law enforcement agencies, The Australian Crime Commission
Board—which includes Commissioners from every state and
territory police jurisdiction and the heads of key Commonwealth
agencies—has established a multiagency response called Task
Force Galilee. Those individuals may be tasked with investigating