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AFP Fraudwatch: Essential Controls for Treasury, Finance With payments fraud running rampant, a recent AFP webinar held by a treasury executive provided especially timely advice. Effective internal controls include exception processing, activity specific accounts and more.
May 14, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: New Payment Channels Threaten Corporate Cash This week, the recent decrease in fraud incidents might be an indication that fraud is evolving, and moving to a new payments channel. Also, what do recent cybersecurity initiatives by the government mean for corporates?
May 02, 2013
Retail Treasurers Question the Need for EMV Is there truly a need to accept EMV? Executives from three major retailers recently questioned whether any merchant needs to accept the standard. The reasons they cited included the costs of implementing EMV and even the overall necessity of it.
Apr 29, 2013
Mobile Moves: Are Anonymous M-Payments Coming? Amazon has filed a patent for an “anonymous” mobile payments system, which would allow users to pay retailers without disclosing personal information. If the service comes to fruition, it could put to rest concerns about the security of mobile payments.
Apr 19, 2013
April 2013 Payments Newsletter This month, we speak with treasurers and fraud experts and get their reactions to the 2013 Payments Fraud & Control Survey, underwritten by J.P. Morgan. Also this month, a follow-up to the CAPP Exercise, financial professionals get a big win in an appeals court ruling, the UK payments industry appears to be headed for stricter regulation, and more.
Apr 18, 2013
Finance Pros Win Big in Appeals Court Ruling The Third Circuit Court of Appeals hit a home run empowering financial professionals in a recent ruling, by sending a clear signal that middle and senior level managers can legitimately question whether the invoices and payments, which they are charged to oversee and execute, are fraudulent and run afoul of federal law and corporate policies without fear of retaliation by their employers.
Apr 17, 2013
Does the Cloud Help Card Payment Security? Depending on whom you ask, processing credit card payments in the cloud is either a great leap forward for security and compliance, or a big step backward. Actually, it can be either—depending on the type of cloud you have in mind and the size of your company.
Apr 16, 2013
Fraudsters Find Myriad Reasons to Target Large Corporates On the whole, fraudsters appear to be going after the companies with the most money and eschewing smaller targets. Even though these organizations have the resources to afford top-notch security, criminals believe they are more susceptible to being defrauded.
Apr 15, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: A Cautionary Tale for Corporates Corporates should think twice before refusing their banks' security recommendations. Otherwise they could be held liable when a fraud loss occurs, if a March 18 court decision is any indicator.
Apr 09, 2013
Cyberattack Exercise Tests Treasurers’ Disaster Preparedness The Financial Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) conducted the latest Cyber Attack against Payment Processes (CAPP) Exercise on March 12-13 and 19-20, putting 67 corporate participants’ cybersecurity preparedness to the test.
Apr 02, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Massive DDoS Attack Disrupts Europe This week, we look at the broader implications of a major DDoS attack that disrupted Internet services for millions of Europeans. Also, a new information sharing center launches in the UK, and Chief Justice John Roberts gets hit with card fraud.
Apr 01, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Cybersecurity Best Practices for Corporates This week, we look at a new report from J.P. Morgan that discusses cybersecurity best practices and trends. Also this week, banks in Canada and South Korea are hit with DDoS attacks, and FinCEN applies money laundering rules to Bitcoins.
Mar 26, 2013
Obama Cyber Executive Order Stirs Things Up President Obama recently signed an executive order on cybersecurity, and issued Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 21, which revokes the 10-year-old Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 7. Treasurers, whose firms have seemingly fended off hackers by themselves, can take comfort in knowing that the federal government is starting to coordinate its efforts inside the Beltway and with the private sector.
Mar 20, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Are PCI Compliance Fines Fair? This week, a look at the Genesco/Visa Lawsuit, which marks the first time that a retailer has sued a credit card company for losses related to fraud. Also, President Obama meets with top CEOs to discuss cybersecurity, a new plan is unveiled that could allow the CIA and NSA to access the FinCEN database, and six major banks get hit with DDoS attacks.
Mar 17, 2013
2013 Payments Fraud Survey: Fraud Incidents Decline A majority of organizations experienced actual or attempted payments fraud last year, but the incidence of fraud decreased for the third straight year, according to the 2013 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, underwritten by J.P. Morgan. The positive trend is the result of corporate migration to electronic payment methods and a range of fraud mitigation strategies.
Mar 13, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Treasury Weighs Global Expansion, Cyber Risk This week, AFP Fraudwatch speaks with Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and a speaker at the upcoming CTC Corporate Treasurers Forum. Leiter shares his views on cyber risk, one of the most critical threats to companies expanding globally.
Mar 12, 2013
Best Practices: Fraud Prevention Recently on AFP’s discussion list corporate treasury and finance professionals discussed fraud prevention.
Mar 11, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Oracle Issues Emergency Patch This week, we look at an emergency patch Oracle has issued to fix two security Java vulnerabilities that could leave corporate treasury groups and their companies vulnerable to hackers. Also this week, debit card fraud skimming losses on Canada’s Interac network hit a new low, and China claims that most of the hacks on two of its military websites came from the U.S.
Mar 05, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: China Linked to Cyberespionage Campaign This week: Mandiant's explosive cyberespionage report, a DDoS attack that aided in the theft of $900,000, an argument on why EMV won't solve all of our card fraud problems, and security flaws in ATMs that allow hackers to steal personal account numbers and... play Angry Birds.
Feb 26, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Will Obama’s Executive Order Improve Information Sharing? Last week, President Obama signed an executive order advocating for greater information sharing between the public and private sector on cyber threats. The executive order and any legislation that follows, while primarily focused on protecting critical infrastructure from cyber espionage, also might help corporates and banks fight cyberfraud.
Feb 19, 2013
CTPs Can Earn Credits for Joining Cyberattack Exercise Certified Treasury Professionals now have added incentive to participate in next month’s Cyber Attack against Payment Processes (CAPP) Exercise. In addition to testing their organizations’ cybersecurity preparedness, participants will have the opportunity to earn continuing education credits.
Feb 14, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: First-Party Fraud Ring Steals $200 Million This week, we look at a card fraud ring that was recently charged with creating thousands of fake identities to steal more than $200 million—a reminder that corporates need to guard against old-school techniques as well as cutting-edge tactics. Also, we review the fraud risks social media activity poses to banks and corporates.
Feb 12, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: ECB Aims to Improve Online Payments Security This week, we look at the ECB's recommendations on cybersecurity, new U.S. policies that could allow for preemptive cyberstrikes, and two major hacks believed to have been carried out by Anonymous.
Feb 04, 2013
Fed to Begin Triennial Study on U.S. E-Payments Usage The Federal Reserve’s Retail Payments Office intends to conduct a study to determine the current volume and composition of electronic payments in the U.S. It should provide trends in usage of payments instruments by consumers and businesses.
Jan 22, 2013
AFP Fraudwatch: Call Center Fraud a Threat to Corporates This week, we look at how improvements in cybersecurity are causing criminals to resort to call center fraud, a new report shows that account takeovers in the UK increased 53 percent in 2012, and Kaspersky Labs uncovers a massive cyber-espionage campaign that has been active since 2007.
Jan 22, 2013

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