We partnered with the Private Equity CFO Association (PECFOA) last week to deliver an insightful webinar on strategies to protect PE firms and their portfolio companies from wire fraud.
Former FBI cyber agent and Palantir technologist - and current Conduit Security CEO - Ryan Castle revealed commonly-used tactics, dissected real-world wire fraud case studies, and shared best practices to protect against this all-too-common crime.
The 100+ CFOs in attendance at this Auxo Ignite event learned:
Half of attendees had some level of experience with wire fraud
- $3B in wire fraud losses were reported in 2023
- Actual losses are estimated at $10-20B
Victims face reputational and career risk, in addition to monetary loss
- Proposed cyber breach notification rules add regulatory risk to this list
Insurance typically does not cover this type of crime
- Because the funds were “voluntarily” parted with
Firms generally have very good people and well-defined processes
- But only half of attendees can prove their procedures were followed
Best practices every firm should have include:
- Separation of duties
- Outbound verification calls (no inbound)
- Use of known good phone numbers (not taken from the email)
- Tech controls / guardrails that ensure procedures are followed
- Documented audit trail that proves procedures were followed
Workflow automation and audit trail documentation:
- Should capture the phone number called, by whom, date, time
- Should include a transcript / recording of the call with details
- Identify red flags and remedial actions
- Are critical for insurance claims and in arbitration
- Significantly reduce team member anxiety around executing wires through added transparency and accountability
Want to view the full webinar in its entirety? Fill out the form here: https://lnkd.in/gC-ZnMar
#auxoignite #privateequity #wirefraud #operationalrisk
