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Interview with Aretina Trepczyk, Vice President, Enterprise Risk Manager at Umpqua Bank

The increased regulatory pressures on third party vendor risk have increased focus on this key area of operational risk. And, despite institutions implementing changes to their third party risk strategies, many programs still need to be optimized and enhanced to ensure strong due diligence of vendors and minimize the risk exposure to the enterprise. Institutions need to incorporate their third party risk stra

What would you rather have happen to you? A Russian ring of hackers has infiltrated your computer and smartphone and is hell-bent on taking control of your finances, social media life, even the smart gadgets in your house…OR…you’ve just been diagnosed with paranoid psychosis, and in fact, nobody’s out to harm you at all.

In a day and age where it’s become increasingly easy for hackers to hijack your credit card and bank accounts, spy on your baby by hacking into the baby-cam and spy on you via yo

As I have covered in past articles, proponents of ERM face one primary challenge when presenting their program (or potential program) to management – is ERM worth the investment?

“We are all facing the same challenge of not having a clear way to quantify [the benefits of ERM],” says Puneet Kapoor, Walgreen Co.’s Director of ERM. Recent research, however, now provides the hard data that many in Kapoor’s position are seeking – significant evidence that ERM carries financial benefits alongside strat

Let’s consider the facts.
The current disagreement is over whether Greece’s creditors will release another bailout installment to pay… Greece’s creditors.

From a strictly financial perspective, this is highly problematic. Were a bank take a similar approach, it would have to give explanations to the regulators. This is called ever-greening – give the client funds to pay you back, and that way you can pretend that the loan is on schedule. If the creditors fail to disburse the next “bailout” paymen

Enrique Suarez Presenting:

Growing Calls for Reforms in the United Nations Security Council

Source:

PressTV

The core principle on which the United Nations was founded was to safeguard human rights, prevent war, improve living standards, promote social and economic process, provide a mechanism for international law and fight diseases.

Despite the initial premises, many countries have been critical of certain advantages the body provides to some powerful countries in getting the best position in the O

You’d think that it would be as easy as pie to avoid getting reeled in by a phishing scam. After all, all you need to do is avoid clicking on a link inside an email or text message. How easy is that?

A phishing scam is a message sent by a cybercriminal to get you to click on a link or open an attachment. Clicking on the link or attachment downloads a virus, or takes you to a malicious website (that often looks like real site).

You are then tricked into entering user names, passwords and other sens

With the emergence of NERC’s new Risk Based Compliance Program come many unanswered questions and hesitations on how to move forward within a company’s structure. This recent launch has worried companies in utilities with security and workload concerns. Although the cons may weigh heavily, the Risk Based Compliance benefits companies with promoting a customizable audit.

Bob Case, NERC Compliance Manager at Black Hills Corporation recently spoke with marcus evans about key topics to be discussed

Yes, identity fraud is SO common that someone becomes a victim every two seconds. The 2014 Identity Fraud Study, as reported on javelinstrategy.com, turned up some alarming results.

Though the dollar amount stolen had decreased over the year preceding the study, the number of victims had increased. People at highest risk were ages 35 to 44.

Account takeover—when the thief takes over a pre-existing account—made up 28 percent of ID fraud losses in 2013. But the greatest risk factor for becoming a vi

Enrique Suarez Presenting a Different Interpretation of why the United States got Involve in the FIFA's Scandal

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You’ve probably heard of people storing information in “the cloud,” but what does that really mean, and is it safe to put your data there?

The cloud is best described as a network of servers offering different functions. Some servers allow you to store and access data, while others provide an online service. You may be familiar with “cloud services” offered by companies such as Google and Adobe.

The term “cloud” comes from cloud computing, which is essentially using a group of computer resources t

Enrique Suarez Presenting:

After Pleading Guilty for Felony, JPMorgan Chase Tells Its Customers It Will Continue to Rip them Off

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Troy Rohrbaugh, Head of Foreign Exchange Trading at JPMorgan Chase, Chairs the New York Fed’s Best Practices Group for Foreign Exchange Trading. JPMorgan Chase Just Pleaded Guilty to a Felony for Conspiring to Rig Foreign Exchange Trading.

As the U.S. Department of Labor deliberates givi

Disclaimer: Much of this article is based on the PowerPoint presentation Operational Excellence: An Integrated Business Execution System developed by Operational Excellence Consulting.

* * * *

In "The Discipline of Market Leaders," Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema describe three distinct value propositions an organization can choose to compete in their market or industry:

1. Operational Excellence,
2. Product Leadership, and
3. Customer Intimacy.

The core of the book is based on five years of research by the T

Who needs psychics to reveal future lottery numbers when you can hack into the state lottery association and tamper with it? That apparently was the reasoning of Eddie Raymond Tipton, 51.

Prosecutors believe Tipton inserted a thumb drive into a computer—the one that spits out random numbers for the lottery, says an article in the Des Moines Register, according to a report at arstechnica.com.

At the time of this purported crime, Tipton was head of security for the Multi-State Lottery Association. S

Enrique Suarez Presenting:

Usurious Returns on Phantom Money: The Credit Card Gravy Train

Source:

Ellen Brown

The credit card business is now the banking industry’s biggest cash cow, and it’s largely due to lucrative hidden fees. 

You pay off your credit card balance every month, thinking you are taking advantage of the “interest-free grace period” and getting free credit. You may even use your credit card when you could have used cash, just to get the free frequent flier or cash-back rewards. But th

Enrique Suarez Presenting:

Unscrupulous Special Interests and Their Vaccine Crusade

Polio is something I have more than a passing acquaintance with. Two days before my fifth birthday a medical doctor in Minneapolis diagnosed me with polio. I only learned decades later that it was not polio, poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis as it was also called. It was shortly after World War II. Then a few years later we were presented

Enrique Suarez Presenting:

The Endless Game: FIFA’s Corruption Gambit

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“As predictable as it is depressing.  All those FIFA members that voted for Blatter have betrayed the game they are supposed to cherish.” Gary Lineker, The Express, May 29, 2015

When the world’s football federation FIFA makes more news than usual about its habitual state of corruption, something has definitely fallen.  Earlier in the week, it came in the form of arrests.  These we

You can’t be too neurotic about shredding sensitive documents to smithereens. For example, some people make a career out of “dumpster diving,” digging through trash in search of bank account information, credit card preapprovals, medical bills, mortgage statements, etc., and then they commit fraud, including creating new accounts with the found information—accounts in the victim’s name.

And by the way, anything with your signature can be a gem to the dumpster diver, as your signature can be forge

Enrique Suarez

The State of Education in the United States: Cornerstones for a More Effective Education

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MIT Professor Jay Wright Forrester’s Work on System Dynamics

During the last twenty years, Jay Forrester's attention has been focused primarily in two areas: 1) the creation of a system dynamics model of the United States economy, and 2) the extension of system dynamics training to kindergarten through high school education. Forrester sees the former project as leading to a new approach to

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.

Enrique Suarez Presenting:

Free Financial Markets Are A Hoax

Source:

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

There are no free financial markets in America, or for that matter anywhere in the Western word, and few, if any, free markets of any other kind. The financial markets are rigged by the big banks, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury in the interests of the profits of the few big banks and the dollar’s exchange value, which is the basis of US power.