[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/watkinss.jpg” caption=”Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins will be a keynote speaker at the 30th World Congress which will focus on Economic Crime Prevention.”]It has been called the largest hacking and identity theft case yet. But last week's indictments of 11 people who allegedly plundered millions of credit card numbers is not expected to seriously dent the underworld where such crimes occur.

Economic crime has been termed the crime of the century. And enforcement agencies, IT professionals and businesses are scrambling to mount a defense.

Economic crime prevention is the theme of the 30th World Congress. The Congress is organized by the DeGroote School of Business and will be held from Jan. 14 to 16, 2009. Industry experts and leading academic researchers, including Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins, and representatives from the FBI, RCMP and the Ontario Securities Commission, will attend the Congress and offer their solutions to economic crime.

Economic crime has many dimensions beyond identity theft and hacking. Other topics that will be covered at the World Congress include securities fraud, insider trading, cyber-security, phishing and e-mail scams, forensic accounting, intellectual property theft, patent protection and corporate espionage.

“The World Congress will allow for a broad discussion of all the elements of economic crime prevention, from detection to prevention to enforcement,” says Paul Bates, dean of the DeGroote School of Business. “This is a wide-spread issue with substantial costs for both businesses and individuals, yet everyone seems to be playing catch-up in terms of solution. We are excited that DeGroote is able to play a role in helping modern organizations secure their business
practices in the digital age.”

Economic crime is difficult to quantify. However, statistics that are available are startling:

– In the hacking case mentioned above, more than 41 million debit and credit card numbers were stolen from major retailers. The hardest-hit retailer took $197 million in charges to cover losses from its breach. Of the 11 defendants, three are U.S. citizens. The others are from countries such as Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus and China, a hodgepodge that reflects the international nature of organized computer crime.

– A recent survey from the McMaster eBusiness Research Centre found that 1.7 million Canadians were victims of identity fraud over the past year. These victims spent more that 20 million hours and more than $150 million of their own money to resolve problems associate with identity fraud.

– More than $1 trillion is estimated to be laundered every year by drug dealers, arms traffickers and other criminals. Recent years have seen rapid change in the financial services industry and growing regulatory expectations and pressures. Combating money laundering and terrorist financing continues to be a major challenge for the banking sector, as gatekeepers to the legitimate financial system.

– The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that fraud costs U.S. companies more than $660 billion annually and the average organization loses about six per cent of its annual revenue to fraud committed by employees.

To learn more about the Economic Crime Prevention track at the 30th Annual McMaster World Congress and how you can participate, please visit http://worldcongress.mcmaster.ca/.