Companies face security threats from a lot of different angles. But there’s one area it could pay to keep an especially close eye on:

The accounting department.

That’s the upshot of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner’s 2010 Report to the Nations. Based on a study of more than 1,800 cases of corporate fraud, the study found that the typical fraudster:

• works in accounting
• is a male age 36-45
• has a college degree, and
• has worked for company between one and five years.

While most frauds were committed by employees or lower level managers, instances involving executives were much more costly — three times as expensive as those committed by managers, and nine times as costly as those committed by employees.

These are just typical patterns, of course, and don’t mean other areas should be ignored. But the study’s results provide a good reminder to companies on what to watch out for.

It’s easy to easy assume most fraud is committed by low-level, recent hires, but it’s the established employees that businesses trust who can do the most damage.

The read more on the report, click here.

Tags: Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, fraud