Australia a 'hotbed' for economic crime, as one-in-10 organisations report losses over $1m
A new survey shows Australia is becoming a 'hotspot' for economic crime as more than one-in-10 Australian organisations reported losses of over $1 million.
The Australian edition of PricewaterhouseCooper's 2016 Global Economic Crime survey found more incidents of money laundering over the past two years, at 26 per cent, compared to 11 per cent globally and 9 per cent across the Asia-Pacific region.
In January, Australia was singled out for its deteriorating position on the International Corruption Index as it continued a four-year slide, dropping six positions, to 13th place.
Australian organisations experienced cybercrime at double the global rate, with 65 per cent experiencing cybercrime in the last 24 months, compared with a global average of 32 per cent.
PwC said there were concerns over the country's infrastructure for combating bribery and corruption at a national level.
"The types of economic crime most commonly experienced remains consistent with previous years, but we are dealing with an increasingly complex economic crime environment driven by cyber threats," said Malcolm Shackell, a PwC partner and services leader.
"The high rate of economic crime exposed in part reflects our serious approach to reporting but given we are lagging on early detection mechanisms."
Companies 'relying' on whistleblowers
Companies cited issues in data quality, skills, resources, and board level engagement as leaving detection and control programs with inadequate protection.
"Australian organisations are relying on being told about a suspected crime through internal tip-offs and whistleblower disclosures more than their global peers," the report stated.
Recent scandals plaguing Commonwealth Bank's insurance arm and 7-Eleven have been uncovered from evidence given by former workers.
The PwC survey found that less than half of Australian organisations have a fully operational response plan to cybercrime incidents, and only 40 per cent described their first responders as fully trained.
"As a result, cybercrimes may be going undetected and when they are being picked up, response teams may be overlooking evidence and therefore limiting their organisation's ability to prosecute," said PwC's cyber partner Richard Bergman.
In June 2015, the Senate referred an inquiry into foreign bribery to the Senate Economics Reference Committee, which has since lapsed at the dissolution of the Senate and House of Representatives on May 9.