ACCA: Ireland can lead fight against financial crime
Ireland can become an international leader in the fight against financial crime which is costing the global economy €3.2 trillion every year, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has said.
A new report, Economic Crime in a Digital Age, commissioned by the ACCA and EY, focuses on the challenges business faces in fending off breaches from sophisticated attackers.
A key asset, for those involved in criminality, is their ability to adapt and evolve their approach with technologies such as blockchain and AI, which makes it extremely difficult for global regulators and policymakers to keep pace.
Aidan Clifford, ACCA Ireland’s technical director, said Ireland’s expertise within financial technology along with its understanding of the challenges involved, places it in an informed and privileged position to be a global leader in addressing the challenge.
“Tech advances — and, in particular, fintech advances and criminality — go hand-in-hand with its expanding scope, exposing more potential victims of economic crime in single attacks, with criminals benefiting from operating internationally in a way regulators cannot,” he said.
The producers of the report conducted a number of interviews with experts who were unanimous that mass mailing and the availability of harvested lists of email addresses have hugely increased the number of victims that a scammer can target in a single attack.
“If you send out 1,000 emails and only one comes back, that one could get you significant amounts of money,” Anthony Harbinson, Northern Ireland Department of Justice director of safer communities, said.
Mr Clifford said a coordinated, structured approach to leveraging these tech hubs globally, such as Ireland, would help plug global skills and knowledge deficits within the global community.
“For the Irish economy, seeking that global collaboration and positioning our credentials would further broaden the reach and contribution of our tech sector, sitting comfortably alongside the growth within cybersecurity and mitigating against the industry’s overexposure to US FDI at a time of international trade and export uncertainly.”
