This paper discuses that there is no definitive answer to the question of banking and security transactions on the internet because, as increasing safeguards are added, the defrauders and hackers on the internet always seem to catch up.
Abstract This paper explains that internet crime includes eager young hackers, who infiltrated web sites to see if they can get away with it; professionals, who are looking for individual data and account numbers and computer frauds such as pyramid schemes and stolen credit cards used to defraud people by ordering high-end merchandise. The author points out that Citibank has three "lines of defense" against unlawful use or access to a customer's account information: (1) Firewalls and VeriSign digital IDs, which act as an electronic checkpoint, refusing access to any intruder; (2) a scrambled 128-bit strong encryption and (3) log-on authentication, which includes not only the T-PIN number but also an additional 6-digit alphanumeric code, containing both letters and numbers. The paper relates that internet security has become an industry in itself; many large financial institutions are building gateways to protect their information storage and retrieval systems from unlawful entry.
From the Paper "Banks and other institutions that rely on electronic money transactions are now taking additional steps to assure security for their customers. Citibank is one prominent example. Their "privacy" message, accessible on the Internet, explains "In order to provide better service or to address security hazards, we will occasionally use a 'cookie'. A cookie is a small piece of information which a Web site stores on your Web browser on your PC and can later retrieve. The cookie cannot be read by a Web site other than the one that set the cookie. We use cookies for a number of administrative purposes, for example, to store your prefer3ences for certain kinds of information or to store a password so that you do not have to input it every time you visit our site."
Abstract This paper looks at how the Enron Corporation defrauded the public and its investors through the use of Special Purpose Entity transactions. The paper also looks at the role Enron's public relations office had in hiding Enron's ethical violations, the role Wall Street had in helping Enron defraud the public, as well as how various independent advisors assisted Enron in cheating its investors.
From the Paper "At these late points, Enron executives were calling on the public relations folks to fix their image, which was not possible. Because public relations? results are, well, public whereas accountings? results (barring failure and consequent exposure) are not, it was impossible for public relations at Enron to dig itself the kind of hole the rest of the company had. Any public relations staff who stayed on might have been seen as fools, or perhaps even liars, although many might have forgiven them trying to save their paychecks for a few more weeks since the were not doing anything illegal. One hopes."
Abstract The paper covers many famous court case which deal with the exclusionary rule and how they relate to the fourth and fifth amendments in the Constitution. The exclusionary rule applies to the waiver of production of evidence that may incriminate someone. If the evidence is regarding defrauding, this evidence is excluded from this rule.
From the Paper "Injustices occur every day in the eyes of citizens that are law abiding. The due process clause of the Constitution sometimes allows people who have committed crimes to be freed based on technicalities. These technicalities can also usually be called mistakes on the part of criminal justice personnel. Someone who has dedicated his or her life to protecting truth and justice made a mistake, knowingly or unknowingly and thus society pays the price. Allowing a criminal to go free never seems to be the just thing to do. However, considering it was a provision of the Constitution it is the right thing to do purely based on the fact the Constitution was created to protect the rights of citizens, good or bad."
Abstract This paper examines how with a mass of legislation empowering authorised officers to investigate suspected benefit fraud, whether we should concentrate on detection rather than prevention. It looks at elements of fraud, governmental powers, legislation, case law, reasons for fraud, historical and political legislative development and Acts of Parliament - before making reccommendations.
From the Paper "There is now a mass of legislation empowering authorised officers to investigate suspected fraud, where these officers can be civil servants, local authority officials or their contractors. Such powers include access to otherwise confidential information (e.g. the return of SS post, redirection arrangements, information about specific individuals from private and public sector organisations, bulk information from utilities companies, a power to request information by written notice from employers, access to electronic information held by third parties) and a power to enter premises, such as a claimant's home or place of work. Although the government's authorised officers may only enter premises where there is a reasonable suspicion of fraud, they may obtain personal information in relation to individual claims or potential offences whether by particular persons or more generally."
Abstract This paper explains that more legislation is needed to specifically address areas of information security. New Zealand's most recent legislation on computer crime, the Crimes Amendment Act of 2003, lends legal coverage for the genre of typical computer crimes, but does not address how to apply these laws in the real world. The author points out that Belgium has a specific law addressing computer forgery, computer fraud, hacking, and sabotage, making them criminal offenses; unauthorized access of a computer system carries a sentence of imprisonment of three months to one year, and if this crime is committed with the intention to defraud, the term of imprisonment may be from six months to two years. The paper relates that People's Republic of China's law, which criminalizes unauthorized surveillance of information systems, imposes a fine in the amount of one to three times as much as the amount of the illegal income, and the confiscation of illegal income from these sales.
From the Paper "In particular, New Zealand companies have faced severe information security threats and resulting legal challenges, which the New Zealand government has addressed through legislation. Even as recent as 1997, New Zealand has faced difficulties with prosecuting information technology crimes as a result of a lack of Parliament Acts that provide laws relating to information technology crimes. Before the introduction of Acts between 2003 and 2004, prosecutions were attempted using laws that were designed before computers were commonplace and did not adequately address the advancements in information technology."
Abstract This paper examines and analyzes K.J. Carillo's article, "Reparations Movement Looks to Gain from Bush's Goree Island Slip" about what can be gained for the reparations movement in the United States after President Bush admitted that the United States was mindful of the past wrongs it had committed in enslaving stolen people from Africa.
From the Paper "However, Carrillo does more than simply focus on the "residual value" gained by the reparations movement from what she terms as a slip on President Bush's part. For, she also takes great pains to place in context the significance of Goree Island's notorious "Door of No Return." Carrillo achieves this through descriptions that bring alive the horrors of a place that had witnessed, "human beings...delivered and sorted and weighed and branded with the marks of commercial enterprises and loaded as cargo on a voyage without return." Indeed, Carrillo is unsparing in her efforts to describe the anguish suffered by slaves in societies that prospered by their unpaid labor, while remaining indifferent to their plight."
Abstract The paper analyzes the events leading to the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and outlines the major facets of the Act. The paper reviews the Act to see the major challenges and successes the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has addressed. The paper concludes that despite the Act's drawbacks, it has been able to alleviate or at least deter poor financial reporting that either directly or indirectly had the objective to defraud individuals.
Outline:
Introduction
Preceding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Major Provisions of the Act
Will the Act be Successful?
Conclusion
From the Paper "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (henceforth SOX) contains 11 titles, which address issues involving criminal penalties, independence of auditors, rulings and requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other known accounting elements. The most profound part of SOX is the fact that there is a board that acts as an oversight agency which regulates, inspects, and disciplines auditors in their role as external accountants for public companies."
Abstract This paper outlines the events leading to the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 and its major features. The author conducts this investigation within the contextual framework of well-known companies Symbol and WorldCom, which were publicly identified as companies that had compliance issues and faced serious failures in corporate governance. The paper also uses the CareNetWest situational analysis for a comparative analysis of risk management and other compliance issues related to the Symbol and WorldCom scenario. The paper concludes that SOX has been able to alleviate or at least deter poor financial reporting that either directly or indirectly had the objective to defraud individuals.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Preceding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - Symbol and WorldCom
Outcomes of the Compliance Issues with Symbol and WorldCom - Understanding Sox
Will the Act Be Successful - Avoiding another Symbol and WorldCom?
Comparative Analysis: Compliance Issues with CareNetWest, Symbol, and WorldCom
Conclusion
From the Paper "WorldCom were the main companies that led to the severe need for SOX. WorldCom in 2002 was fined by the Securities Exchange Commission, after it was found that the company improperly booked $3.8 billion dollars over five years that made revenues looked better than what they were and was used to 'trick' shareholders and investors with a blatant misrepresentation of the company's finances. WorldCom's actions were unethical and purposefully did not account for true cost and expenses which severely overstated profits."
Abstract The paper discusses how the Enron debacle that occurred in late 2001 illustrated how an ethically unsound business can have devastating and widespread effects on the international business community. The paper continues and reiterates that the reason for the collapse of Enron was an absence of ideation and practice of ethical values. Market failure occurred due to information asymmetries, in which unfairness of the imbalance exceeded simple competitive advantage, while compromising the rights of others. The paper states that six ethical decision-making steps can be applied to the organizational ethics issue of Enron in order to further understand the process involved in solving ethical issues.
From the Paper "The collapse of Enron at the end of 2001 resulted in the second largest corporate bankruptcy in American history to date. The fraudulent practices of Enron executives resulted in stakeholder betrayals (Petrick & Scherer, 2003). Stakeholders were deceived by Enron executives, betrayals which contravene any ethical code. This choice among Enron executives to betray stakeholders in order to promote short term financial gain resulted in the destruction of their own personal and business reputations, exposure to the possibility of criminal and civil prosecution, as well as bankruptcy. Stakeholders, including institutional and individual investors, were misinformed regarding the financial stability of Enron due to fraudulent accounting practices, and this resulted in a loss of millions of dollars. Secondary and tertiary stakeholders were also negatively affected by the Enron scandal. For example, Enron executives placed pressure on accounting and law firms to partake in unethical practices in order to accrue short term, temporary gain."
Abstract The paper explains how analysts, particularly sell-side analysts, work in an environment with many inherent conflicts of interest that put pressure on their objectivity. The paper then outlines the key provisions of the new National Association Of Securities Dealers (NASD) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) rules as well as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Additionally, the paper relates that investment firms have faced significant penalties for their roles in defrauding the public. The paper contends, however, that too much burden is on the individual investor to discover conflicts of interest. The paper believes that conflict of interest rules need to stop unethical conduct instead of just requiring public admission.
From the Paper "After the stock market collapsed in 2002, more than seven trillion dollars vanished from the U.S. stock market and from the brokerage accounts and retirement funds of ninety million Americans, a vanishing act helped along by greed and corporate fraud ("60 Minutes - The Sheriff of Wall Street"). The public, whose money was being used, whose interests the financial institutions were committed to serve, and who should have benefited from the financial proceeds of the stock market advances were systematically lied to and defrauded. In one instance a securities research analyst told an institutional investor in an email, "well, ratings and price targets are fairly meaningless anyway . . . but, yes, the 'little guy' who isn't smart about the nuances may get misled, such is the nature of my business" (Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Release No. 18116)."
