Consider each of the following fraud cases. Identify the incentive, opportunity, and rationalization present in each case.
a. An employee of a telecommunications firm's payroll department moved to a new position within the department in which she no longer has privileged access to payroll accounts. However, when changing positions, her access rights to the payroll accounts were left unchanged. An associate told her that he was starting a financial service business and needed some contact information. Using the privileged access rights that she had retained, the employee provided her associate with confidential information of many employees, including 401(k) account numbers, credit card account numbers, and social security numbers, which he then used to commit more than 100 cases of identity theft. The insider's actions caused more than $1 million worth of damages to the firm and its employees.²³
b. A database analyst of a major check authorization and credit card processing company went beyond his authorized computer access rights. The employee obtained his firm's consumer information of 8.4 million individuals. The stolen information included names and addresses, bank account information, and credit and debit card information. He sold the data to telemarketers over a five-year period.²⁴
c. An IT consultant working under contract for an offshore oil platform company was denied an offer for a permanent job with the same company. He then accessed the firm's computer systems without approval and caused damage by impairing the integrity and availability of data.²⁵
d. A manager responsible for payment authorization hired an offshore programmer to insert a couple of independent contractors to the vendor table of his company's database. He then authorized payments to the independent contractors on fictitious services for personal gain. He spent the stolen money on luxury items and extravagant purchases for himself, his family, and friends.