DATA AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT
“Credit cards are
still an easy target.”
risk to data. Security, whether it’s policy or
technology, has to be integrated with the flows.
The minute security impinges on processes,
people start resenting it, are event tempted to
subvert it. Look at airport security. How many
people see that as a value-adding aspect of the
travel process?
IQ: How well does Australia do in the area of data
security compared with other developed countries?
Some of the technology which impresses me is the
really high-end analytic software that the banks use
to determine, probabilistically, whether the activity
in your account is legitimate or not. So normally
you access your Internet banking from a Windows
machine via an Australian ISP, and you only ever
use BPay. So how come you’re now trying to access
if from a Linux machine in China, and you’re trying
to transfer money to Afghanistan? They have this
software and it clearly helps.
JT: It’s impossible to measure that comparatively.
We do OK for what we have. We can often be
told that we’re not doing enough to keep up
with other countries when it comes to technology
adoption. But I think the reality is that Australians
are more expedient with their investments. At
IBRS we’ve got a 92% renewal rate with our
clients, which is extraordinarily high for an analyst
firm. This shows the value we deliver in our
research and advisory service to Australia. We
understand the local issues.
IQ: How big is the problem of identity theft?
IQ: How can good recordkeeping contribute to
data security?
IQ: Is any area more vulnerable to ID fraud
than others?
JT: Good recordkeeping is essential to most
aspects of business function. Security is also a
function to support the business. So, let me flip
it around and say that good security is vital to
accurate recordkeeping. Having the right person
able to make the right change to the right data at
the right time; that’s a security issue. But it’s also
directly relevant to record keeping, because I also
want to keep an audit trail of who did what, when
they did it, how they did it, and who they were
authorised by to do it.
JT: Credit cards are still an easy target. I’ve had a
taxi try to scam my credit card, and barely a month
goes by without me hearing some horror story of
a corporate credit card being used to buy a $4000
handbag in Sydney while the owner is interstate.
IQ: What have been the trends in ID fraud and ID
security to counter fraud over the past five years?
JT: Probably the big one is the increasing
acceptance we have for transactions over the
Internet. If you think about it, the Inte