CFE
Certified Fraud Examiner
The job market is exploding for professionals who are conversant with business executives and know how to follow a data trail and review digital evidence
5 Skills for Fighting Fraud
5 Skills for Fighting Fraud
- Understand the Business
- Leverage Technology
- Have a Versatile Work Experience
- Understand Where the Information Resides
- Possess International Capabilities:
- Understand the Business: Major responsibilities for fraud examiners today include understanding the business side of information technology. They need to work with software and actually write business rules and processes that help in looking for potential fraud types.
For example, take the case of an obstetrician that bills for eight ultrasounds on an average for each patient, when in fact the industry norm is four. Here, the examiner will need to know the healthcare industry and business norms and accordingly set rules on the software to track anomalies and review information that stands out over time to identify a fraud.
- Leverage Technology: Examiners need to understand how to follow a data trail, use case tools, review digital evidence and conduct forensic analysis. The main challenge for fraud examiners is getting access to relevant information quickly and keeping up with crime itself. For instance, a client case that involved theft of source code from a source code repository. In investigating this fraud, fraud examiner have to identify how the copy occurred and where the source code was affected. Fraud examiner needs to review all the client's systems by performing forensic imaging and making bit- by-bit copies of the system to actually view both the live files and the deleted files to understand from where the breach occurred.
- Have a Versatile Work Experience: Clients in government and private sector looking for individuals that have combated a broad range of fraud cases. They look for in-depth true investigative experience and not simply the oversight of this function and they want people who are hands-on and have worked in different settings and are exposed to handling a range of vulnerabilities and fraud scenarios.
- Understand Where the Information Resides: Successful fraud examiners need to possess a strong corporate background and understand the inner workings of a company and the infrastructure of an organization. Because when examiners are looking for evidence, they should know where information resides quickly. Is it on a server, BlackBerry or laptop? This sounds simple, but if we're conducting an investigation, you need to act and think quickly, so you get all your sources of evidence.
- Possess International Capabilities: Clients are operating internationally more extensively now, and therefore examiners with international capabilities and work experience - especially in developing countries. Individuals who have an understanding of different privacy laws, security standards and frameworks, in addition to speaking different languages, are a huge plus in the hiring industry.