Vladimir Grabulov, a consultant for financial forensics, internal audit, and business compliance at KPMG, spoke to Biznis.rs about digital fraud.

Belgrade will host one of the most prominent European events in the field of digital forensics and cybersecurity – the Digital Forensics conference – on November 12th and 13th.

As announced by the organizers, the Archibald Digital Forensics Initiative, the event will bring together over 400 senior representatives from international and regional public institutions, industry leaders, and financial institutions to engage in a comprehensive dialogue on preventing and combating cybercrime, as well as sharing best practices in the fields of digital forensics and cybersecurity.

Biznis.rs is one of the media partners of the conference. A few days ahead of the event, we spoke with Vladimir Grabulov, a digital forensics expert at KPMG with extensive experience in this field. Grabulov will lead a workshop at the conference focused on corporate fraud investigations.

Given your extensive experience in forensic investigations, what are the key changes you’ve noticed in the nature of digital fraud in recent years?

“There is a noticeable trend that fraudulent schemes in financial crime are becoming increasingly complex. This is due to the development of technologies that result in highly sophisticated phishing and social engineering methods to gather necessary data, which fraudsters misuse to carry out fraud in electronic transactions (money transfers, identity theft, etc.).

It’s important to note that these methods usually don’t involve complex cyberattacks, but still rely on obtaining information from people employed at targeted companies, or individual victims of fraud.”

What are the most common challenges corporations face when trying to prevent digital fraud?

“Digital fraud often involves groups of actors who continuously devise new fraudulent methods, more advanced than the current detection systems. Therefore, it is clear that fraudsters are more up-to-date and gain an advantage over corporations. There are numerous possible reasons for this situation – ranging from corporations’ belief that they won’t be the victims of fraud, the lack of adequate control systems, to the over-reliance on existing systems without considering the need to monitor and improve these systems.”

At the Digital Forensics conference, you will conduct a workshop focused on corporate fraud investigations. What are the key components of an effective fraud prevention strategy?

“The positive aspect is that the basic principles of fraud remain unchanged with the emergence of new schemes, which implies that the fundamental principles of prevention remain the same. The main focus continues to be on raising awareness of fraud, as well as its widespread impact and harm. Additionally, prevention involves defining ethical business and conduct rules, implementing internal controls based on the distribution of responsibilities among individuals, and allowing for mutual verification to ensure the effectiveness of established measures.”

How important is employee education and training in reducing the risk of digital fraud, and what methods have proven to be most effective in practice?

“Education is precisely the starting point for increasing awareness about fraud and its prevention. Unfortunately, the importance of education is often overlooked, under the assumption that it is generally known and that there is no need for further improvement. The goal of the workshop is for attendees to gain practical insights into how prevention requires continuous improvement. This covers a wide range of aspects (from the psychology of fraud, analysis of internal factors, environment, and regulations, to the methodology and techniques of conducting forensic investigations and presenting their results).

I firmly believe that such a workshop, with practical examples and opportunities to hear and exchange the latest experiences, allows participants to easily grasp the material and actively engage in discussing how to reduce the risk of fraud.”

How can digital transformation and new tools, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, help in the early detection of fraud?

“The greatest advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning is their ability to process large amounts of data based on set criteria and defined rules, while avoiding errors caused by the human factor. It is important to understand that the development of these tools carries significant risks of misuse, so we must return to the human factor and the necessity of synergy to ensure quality input and the development of these tools to fight fraud.”