We spend a day monitoring the latest Anti Financial Crime Conference by the IQPC Team in London, and ask; why are we asking this question anyway?
Yes, – and it needs to be asked. As Conferences go, this was one of the best. Of the three similar events that just I myself have covered in just the last two months – this Conference stood out. How so? Because it was not afraid to discuss both practical solutions, and also admit where there were difficult solutions. In brief – yes we know we need technology, but we need humans to influence and guide our decision making.
It is not as if this delegates were not prepared. As my colleague Lee Kim, Head of Cyber Security at the giant HIMSS Organisation confided to me in her earlier interview (https:// thecrtpartnership.com/cyber-security-the-dark-side-explained/) – several months before- they had been aware of the growth of cyber linked to money scams, way back since 2013. It is just that, the attacks on our personal way of life, as opposed to just our infrastructure, have become too clever and sophisticated, for us to do nothing about it. And so here we are. If we haven’t woken up by now, then what on earth were we doing?
This was not just a meeting point for finance corporates who needed to know – the difference was that vendors and experts from among the audience, were eager to go beyond the sales-pitch and share their concerns and expertise openly with delegates.
Perhaps the most interesting point made, was that “AI might not be necessary for the smart deployment of risk detection”. At a time of confusion by so many financial services companies as to the benefits and successful use cases of AI – it was refreshing to hear that, well guys, you might not need it anyway.
Certainly, risk detection was a key flavour. I was impressed by the Kyckr ability to detect the corporate provenance of who owns who etc, within a 7 second discovery window. And the guys at Smartnumbers set out, in an alarming flow of slides, the risks we face from contact-centre fraud.
Perhaps more worrying and not recognised by many, – was that data breaches (which particularly relate to contact centre exposure) – reflect badly on the brand that corporates are trying to create and sustain. There is not just a direct financial damage from the customer or supplier – but also the residual damage of a malevolent transaction; “we just can’t trust their process any more”.
When we moved on and talked about AML, – equally, it was clear that “automation” is a massive time saver, and it is a fallacy to trim down operational teams, if you can give them the right “up to date tech”. And “trying new tech” can easily be done by way of small and focussed Trials.. Use your people to look at the “noise” being created – and take advantage of that wider decision making process. The concept of testing out on a small scale, etc made a lot of sense.
Yes, there were several purely tech sessions, and this discussion and article is not the place for that dialogue. You and I just want to know that there are people who can solve our Cyber Crime problems, How they do it, well that’s for another discussion.