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Imagine a lifeguard at the beach sitting on his perch. His job is to patrol and monitor for signs of trouble. He sees a surfer being attacked by a shark. Wow, a lot of good it does that he’s in a completely helpless position; by the time he scrambles off his perch and runs towards the water, the victim has bled out. Ouch.

This is the same concept behind cyber crime. By the time a business or everyday Internet user realizes they’ve been hacked…major damage has been done. We can’t just be reactive.

The next time you’re in a public place and glued to your smartphone or tablet — whether it’s at the gym, a coffee house, the airport, or just a park bench— know that someone might be peering over your shoulder to see what you’re doing. The snooper could just be curious, or they could be trying to capture your login information so they can use it to access your accounts impersonating you later on.

This behavior is called “shoulder surfing”, but it doesn’t always mean that someone is literally look

Fraud Prevention & Financial professionals will join together to share cutting edge strategies and techniques to manage the growing area of fraud risk

New York, NY– April 29, 2015 – marcus evans, the world’s largest event management group, will host the Fraud Prevention for Financial Institutions Conference on August 12-13, 2015 in New York, NY. This premiere forum will provide a dynamic environment for senior practitioners to: leverage intelligence and analytics to better understand behavioral

It’s hard to believe that, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, most Americans aren’t too upset that the government can track their e-mails and phone calls. There’s too much of a blasé attitude, it seems, with people thinking, “I don’t care if I’m monitored; I have nothing to hide.”

This blows it for those of us who actually DO mind that the government is snooping around in our communications, even if we’re as innocent as a butterfly.

Privacy experts believe that governmental m

Spring is in the air (if you’re in the northern hemisphere) and it’s traditionally a time to clean every nook and cranny and get rid of excess stuff in your house. But it’s also a good time to clean up your digital life. Just like your house, your digital life needs a good cleaning once in a while, but sometimes this can seem like a daunting task, so here’s some tips for you to get started.

First, begin by emptying your trash or recycle bin on your computer and clearing your browser cache of temp

Give me a break! In the next month, students will get the week off for spring break—a much needed reward after months of hard work and, for some, gnarly winter weather. Spring break means free time, family vacations, trips with friends, and timeless memories.

But, spring break can pose some risks to your online reputation and your identity. So whether you are going to party it up in the Caribbean or you are taking the kids to Disney World, here are some tips to keep you digitally safe this spring

There’s the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, the war on cancer and the war on cyber threats. In fact, more people are vulnerable to cyber attacks than they are to the first three threats combined.

So pervasive is this threat that President Obama fully recognizes that everyone is at risk. He even signed an executive order recently in the hopes of promoting the sharing of more cybersecurity related data between the government and the private sector.

Recently President Obama presented a speech at

These days, it is hard to pick up a newspaper or go online and not see a story about a recent data breach. No other example highlights the severity of these types of hacks than the Sony breach late last year.

While a lot of information, including creative materials, financials and even full feature-length movies were released – some of the most hurtful pieces of information were the personal emails of Sony executives. This information was truly personal.

You have a right to privacy, but it’s not g

Privacy used to mean changing clothes behind a partition. Nowadays, say “privacy” and people are likely to think in terms of cyberspace. Stay connected, and you risk losing your privacy.

Even if you’re not connected, don’t even own a computer or smartphone, information about you can still be out there on the Internet, such as a listing for your address and phone number or a way for someone to get it with a small fee if you live in owner-occupied property.

An article on wired.com points out that th

It’ll get worse before it gets better: online data safety. It’s amazing how many people think they’re “safe” online, while one huge business or entity after another keeps getting hacked to the bone.

And “safety” doesn’t necessarily mean the prevention of your computer getting infected with a virus, or falling for an online scam that results in someone getting your credit card information. It’s also a matter of privacy. While targeted advertising (based on websites you’ve visited) may seem harmle

Years ago, having “the talk” with your kids meant telling them where babies come from. Nowadays, “the talk” has a whole new meaning. Your kids may be able to explain in detail how a baby is created, but may be clueless (because so many adults are) about something called “data permanence.”

Don’t beat around the bush. Tell your kid outright, “If you post any racy images of yourself online—it will be there for the next million years for anyone to see. And it can be used against you.” Give this same

Haste certainly doesn’t make waste if you’ve suffered from an entity getting hacked resulting in a data breach. Don’t waste a single minute delaying notifying affected accounts! In the case of a credit card company, they will investigate; you won’t have to pay the fraudulent charges. The breached card will be closed, and you’ll get a new one. And there is more.

All sounds simple enough, but the experience can be a major hassle. Below is what you should do upon learning your card has been breached

Risk data is an area that has been largely overlooked for many years. Today the situation is different and the area is facing increasing regulatory scrutiny, as Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) rush to comply with the Basel 239 Principles for Effective Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting. An enterprise’s success depends on its ability to analyze risk data efficiently and effectively, in ways that uncover both risks and opportunities. Being able to extract and escalate c

In December 2013, the New York Jets played the Oakland Raiders at the Met Life stadium in New Jersey in temperatures close to freezing. Those of us at the game dressed for deep winter and watched the fourth quarter in the falling snow. Two weeks later, the Jets played their final home game in the same stadium, in 71 degrees, with the crowd wearing t-shirts and tailgating like it was late summer.

The Super Bowl will kick off at the Met Life stadium on February 2, 2014. This presents a preparation

Baby-boomers will soon be transferring their assets to generations X and Y, primarily defined by their exposure to technology and the web from an early age. As banks’ relationship management styles gravitate towards digital mediums, their next priority should be the associated customer data. How can banks adapt their IT infrastructures to manage the amounts of data new generations are generating?

In today’s digitalised world customer data is increasing daily. Social media alone (Twitter, Facebook

With the recent introduction of recording for voice and SMS on mobile phones for trading activities in the UK, many technologists were raising the issue of “Big Data” as additional voice recording requirements contribute to the growing repository of data being held by their firms to meet with regulator requirements. Although regulators around the globe are driving for greater visibility and a more comprehensive record of past trading activities, this additional data can also serve a purpose in o

CFAR-m main features (unique algo and features) 

Aggregation is a way to combine several single indicators representing different components (dimensions)
of the same concept to form a single aggregate. The result leads to a single score, called a composite
indicator, which has the ability to summarize a large amount of information in a comprehensible form .
Aggregation requires the determination of a weighting scheme of the different components. This task is
extremely difficult and is one of the c

In general only a handful of businesses correctly capture Operational Risk Loss Data and of those that do, only a small number of risk units in these firms are modelling their risk data in a coherent manner. After a bit of research on the internet and in various other channels, it has become relatively apparent that there isn't a comprehensive list of potential models which can be uses for understanding Operational Risk. I would have expected an analyst somewhere at some point in time to have do

Building a loss reporting database for operational risk. What you need & links to some outstanding risk systems.

In our last blog posting on Monte Carlo and Loss Data we described the importance of the Loss Data exercise. A few people have personally emailed me asking for more information on this aspect of risk management, so I have decided to write a blog post on it.

Click this link to continue reading

By looking at a case study in Monte Carlo and Loss Data, we are able to see how important it is to model loss experience and to categorise operational risk loss events.

Recently I had a discussion on modelling risk with a fantastic and successful business person who said to me : "I have read about Monte Carlo, you even make mention to it on your blog but it doesn't make great sense to me. The maths in Monte Carlo is even worse because it seems to confuse the concept by taking it into an academic