FBI lists Top 10 posts in cybercriminal operations

The security world is finally coming to realise that terrorists and criminal hacker organisations are operating with increasing corporate-like efficiency, specialisation and expertise.

From a business perspective, these criminal enterprises are highly productive and staffed by dedicated people willing to operate worldwide, around the clock "without holidays, weekends or vacations," according to Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant director in the FBI's cyber division. "As a result, when an opportunity presents itself these criminals can start planning within hours."

"The cyber underground now consist of subject matter experts that can focus all their time and energy on improving their techniques, their goods and services," Chabinsky told an audience today at the FOSE conference, a government IT trade show, held here.

During the presentation, Chabinsky presented or proposed, a tentative list of the top 10 positions or roles, in cyber crminal organisations

• Coders/programmers, who write the exploits and malware used by the criminal enterprise.
• Distributors, who trade and sell stolen data and act as vouchers for the goods provided by other specialists.
• ISP;s, Tech experts, who maintain the criminal enterprise's IT infrastructure, including servers, encryption technologies, databases, and the like.
• Hackers, who search for and exploit applications, systems and network vulnerabilities.
• Fraudsters, who create and deploy various social engineering schemes, such as phishing and spam.
• Hosted systems providers, who offer safe hosting of illicit content servers and sites.
• Cashiers, who control drop accounts and provide names and accounts to other criminals for a fee.
• Money mules, who complete wire transfers between bank accounts. The money mules may use student and work visas to travel to the U.S. to open bank accounts.
• Tellers, who are charged with transferring and laundering illicitly gained proceeds through digital currency services and different world currencies.
• Organisation Leaders, charaismatic figure-heads, often "people persons" without technical skills. The leaders assemble the team and choose the targets.

Customer Service versus Fraud Management

Ooops! Accidents will happen but sometimes they may not be what they seem.

Price and customer service have always been the two biggest influencers behind the purchase of insurance, and insurance companies are seeing this trend increase significantly. This is partly as a result of current tough economic conditions and partly from the emergence and availability of new distribution channels for customers.

Insurance companies can offer very little by way of flexibility on pricing structures, and the provision of enhanced or better customer service is an issue facing increased scrutiny in the boardroom.

Also, insurers are facing an ongoing battle against insurance fraud - an issue that according to the ABI, costs the industry $1.6bn a year.

The need to provide policyholders with an efficient and positive claims experience, as well as managing fraud effectively, has proved to be a big challenge for the industry in recent years as fraud increases and fraudsters become more sophisticated.

Forensic Psychology
Since the introduction of forensic psychology to the insurance market in 2001, the adoption of 'cognitive interviewing' has grown rapidly as a means of detecting honesty and combating fraud in a more empathetic way. Perhaps its success is not surprising because this is a common sense approach to comfortably extracting information, which complements the service delivered to the genuine policyholder.

Cognitive Interviewing
Cognitive interviewing is a system which incorporates a number of key components. Since 2001, when it was introduced into the insurance industry, cognitive interviewing has been further refined.

Today, it draws on advanced forensic psychology, behavioural psychology, advanced conversation management, communication techniques and experience, in identifying and anticipating fraud trends.

Rapid Detection of Honesty
The key is to identify honesty rapidly, and fast tack genuine claims through to settlement whilst simultaneously pinpointing fraud and extracting the evidence to robustly repudiate such claims.

The methodology has also evolved to cater for, and manage, claim volumes with no loss of service or fraud identification. Commercial advantage can consequently be realised in terms of cost and the ability to ramp up the service as required. This is a real bonus.

FSA Regulations
As well as helping to enhance the customer service experience during the claims process, cognitive interviewing can also play an intrinsic role in supporting FSA regulations and TCF guidelines.

The methodology of obtaining information at the outset of a claim rather than weeks or months down the line when it has been flagged as high risk, is a natural complement to best practice and TCF guidelines. The cognitive process leads to early decisions with no need to keep referring back to various parties for additional information.

The industry as a whole recognises that working collaboratively is vital to combating fraud, yet historically there has been a deep mistrust between brokers and insurers in handling suspected fraudulent claims.

BIBA Survey
In last year's BIBA survey, it was reported that insurers tend to bypass brokers when dealing with suspicious claims because they feel they are obstructive when it comes to identifying fraudulent policyholders. Brokers, meanwhile, have concerns about the impact of fraud investigations on policyholders' customer service aligned to the claims experience.

Fraud Detection Tool
Forensic psychology as a fraud detection tool can help brokers and insurers to work together in collaboration throughout this sensitive process. Cognitive interviewing meets the needs of both insurer and broker alike, enabling a joined up approach which drastically reduces claims spend in relation to fraud whilst simultaneously delivering strong customer service to policyholders.

Protecting the Bottom Line
This joined up approach shields genuine policyholders from the additional costs of fraud, supporting FSA guidelines, whilst at the same time protecting the bottom line of both broker and insurer businesses. Policyholders value the fact that they are being protected from unnecessarily high premiums through the proactive pursuit of fraud and the swift resolution of genuine claims is a powerful reputation booster.

The significance for insurers of adopting empathetic methods of fraud management that will impact positively on both customer service and the bottom line cannot be overestimated and
this is a trend that is definitely here to stay.

On of the more popular versions of this Fraud Detection system is Absolute's Flatline