Introduction
The recent trend of increased exposure due to the access of extended financial and fraud concerns by social media and the internet has necessitated the need to curb the tendency. The matter has led to fraudulent financial reporting involving the violation of accounting principles. There is an urgent need to analyze the fraud occurrences and the perpetrators to solve the issue. Social media, including platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have played a significant role in transforming how business is done, especially in the investment sector (Boiko et al., 2019). The internet is also an essential tool in entrepreneurship and economic growth.
However, both the internet and social media can have devastating effects on the business due to its misuse that can cause harm and security fraud operations. The increased exposure promotes this to financial and accounting information. Fraudsters use social networking platforms to note potential victims and seek their private information through the internet, which they use to organize phishing attacks. Cyber-attacks on businesses and organizations have become more sophisticated in the recent past (Boiko et al., 2019). The effects of such insecurities have made the organizations seek to promote data security and develop a strong defense against such threats.
As an organization, the concept of building bridges between cyber forensics and accounting investigations is of paramount salience in organization safety. Forensic accountants have a long history of assisting clients in revealing uncomfortable accounting facts. For decades, they have been helping corporations and the court system evaluate and analyze damages caused by fraud and other adverse occurrences. Cybercrime specialists, particularly forensic analysis and database security experts, are entrusted with tracking hackers’ trails or investigating their digital imprint with the hopes of finding data leakage and breaches caused by an attack. Forensic accounting and cyber security groups are working together to address the set of data breaches and exposure, as well as possible expenses and damages incurred as a result of the violation. Therefore, there are several advantages of building alignment between cyber forensics and accounting investigations.
Advantages
It is crucial to evaluate the overall price of a cybersecurity compromise as more of our world becomes digital and more data is provided at our disposal. A firm’s leakages and damages can be severe depending on the fraud extent. A third-party expert, including a forensic accountant, can assist firms in determining what has been lost and quantifying the financial losses connected with a cyberattack (Boiko et al.,2019). Taking precautions to prepare ahead and minimize errors before a crisis arises can benefit handsomely in the long run. The goal of creating alignment between cyber forensics and accounting investigation is to solely identify malware in the device’s software, leaving the physical component to one side. While reviewing the device’s entry and departure points, one can quickly discover well about personnel who connected the system and the conditions wherein the data were created, providing a jewel description of what occurred and when. In today’s fast, evolving, and digitally shifting world, cyberspace investigations are an inevitable phenomenon that is incredibly important.
Criminal intelligence experts have long realized the significance of graphic tools in aiding connection visualization. Analysts have been utilizing some cohesive social analysis for a long time, whether association under investigation is between individuals, enterprises, or events. During studies, several potential tools include matrices and link diagrams, social network diagrams, temporal analysis, transactions, common diagrams, PERT, and VIA charts (Alshurafat et al., 2020). Although no tool can replace thorough investigation, they can make the process easier and comprehend challenging issues. These tools can allow you to understand the route a specific billing went through the victim financial institution, whether you are attempting to depict the framework of an interrelated intelligence unit in an anticompetitive case or merely seeking to understand the direction a specific payment went (Nigrini, 2020). While these technologies vary, they all have one common trait: visualization. The following describes how these tools are applied during the investigation process.
Matrices and Link Diagrams
For displaying relationships, matrices and link diagrams are helpful tools. Both depict a tri-interaction across items in two dimensions. Developing a connection diagram without utilizing a linkage matrix is viable, but it becomes more challenging as the chart becomes more complex. The linkage matrix plays a significant a role at this point. An affiliation matrix is a method of representing associations between objects in a logical manner. A it can depict relationships between individuals, institutions, or individuals and entities, among other things. They are built on sophisticated computational foundations and, in the right hands, maybe modified and converted into pretty advanced forecasting tools (Okoe et al., 2018). Their forms take different shapes and sizes, but they are always simply a set of columns and rows. Matrixes, often known as tables, comprise an ordered set of a relational databases.
Designers can use the above square matrix to identify a specific entity under observation. We can examine the correlation among employees in an organization, for instance. The profiles of all the individuals we like to demonstrate a connection are listed along the left column. Then re-list everything in the same sequence anywhere along the front of the matrix. We insert an X in the field where the row variable for A and the horizontal vector for B overlap to denote an association.
Social Network Diagrams
The use of social network diagrams adds another layer of intricacy. Even though the basic theory remains the same, network theory begins to address the dynamics of social relationships and this adds a layer of complication to the equation. However, as the complexity grows, so does the utility of improved modeling tools. There are no easy ways to show relationship strength or directionality in simple link diagrams. These features are critical in understanding the structure of an organization in real life. Human relationships are better visualized and analyzed using social network diagrams. There are injustices in almost every connection; nodes and edges are the cornerstones of all structured analysis and represent the principal goal of investigation.
The components that constitute the topic of research are nodes, often referred as vertices and each node corresponds to a particular person. The node works as the placeholder for the entity in the graph, whether it’s a person, institution, or transaction. Edges represent entities, and we should link them when suitable since our research aims to portray the interactions between entities in visual terms, their vertex. The use of edges accomplishes this. As previously stated, there are numerous interactions that we can model. This is known as an unconsummated connection in graph theory, and it is represented by a directed edge, which is linear with a directing point.
Temporal Analysis
Tools for temporal analysis assist in the organization of occurrences or information while they emerge over time. Unlike transnational analysis tools, which allow us to model relationships between people, firms, or groups, temporal analysis tools allow us to express interactions between time and another thing. For example, a simple chronology is a temporal analytic tool that allows us to graphically arrange activities in a linear way. There are several applications in this category. Some devices, such as the time-event chart (TEC), are periodic performance measures, while others, such as the transactional flowcharts, are not (Quick et al., 2019). The capacity to assist researchers in organizing things inside a conceptual framework is a feature shared by all of the tools we have placed together in this category. Often, chronological time is the most popular frame of reference. TECs and basic timeline, program evaluation review technique (PERT) and VIA graphs, and acquisition data flow diagram are among the tools we have selected to be included in this area.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Investor faith and security have deteriorated in today’s modern time of economic crisis. Simultaneously, there is mounting pressure to achieve financial results that meet or exceed expectations. These issues have resulted in massive inspection and dispute of accounting records by shareholders, authorities, and other participants and an emphasis on accountants and their obligations. Unexpected financial outcomes, financial deception, missing assets, and fraud accusations are all prominent reasons of financial investigations, which demand going beyond the income accounts to show the facts. This concerns call upon the building of bridges between cyber security and financial accounting to be in a position to carry out all these investigations and identify the fraudsters.
References
Alshurafat, H., Beattie, C., Jones, G., & Sands, J. (2020). Perceptions of the usefulness of various teaching methods in forensic accounting education. Accounting Education, 29(2), 177-204.
Boiko, A., Shendryk, V., & Boiko, O. (2019). Information systems for supply chain management: Uncertainties, risks, and cyber security. Procedia Computer Science, 149, 65-70.
Nigrini, M. J. (2020). Forensic Analytics: Methods and techniques for forensic accounting investigations. John Wiley & Sons.
Okoe, M., Jianu, R., & Kobourov, S. (2018). Node-link or adjacency matrices: Old question, new insights. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 25(10), 2940-2952. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2018.2865940
Quick, M., Law, J., & Li, G. (2019). Time-varying relationships between land use and crime: A spatio-temporal analysis of small-area seasonal property crime trends. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 46(6), 1018-1035.