Said Ouedraogo

As we continue to learn about business processes and ERP systems we often discuss financial or account related terms and concepts. How much finance and accounting knowledge should IT personnel supporting business applications know and learn?

I think IT personnel should have a certain understanding of finance and accounting. In fact, the IT…[Read more]

Controls are important to financial and accounting processes. What would be different in the controls of a purely domestic US company vs. an international company? Give 1 – 2 specific examples.

Accounting and financial reports differ from one country to another. When doing business domestically the company must implement controls that will c…[Read more]

Military Cyber Command of South Korea Suffers Embarrassing Hack

South Korea cyber command center of military has been hacked last month when officials discovered malicious code in its system. Officials are not clear how the malicious code entered the system, but think that the objective was a “vaccine routing server” used by the cyber command…[Read more]

Ian,

I don’t think Tulsa is a good idea because due to tornadoes and seismic activities. Truth that you want to have a data center with easy access. however, I do not think that it is wise to locate it in a place where the risk of natural disaster is high.

For an organization choosing among Denver Colorado, Miami Florida, Redlands California and Tulsa Oklahoma, from a physical security perspective – where would be the best place to locate their data center? Why is this place better and the other places worse?

From a physical security perspective, it would be best for an organization to locate t…[Read more]

Fred,

This is ingenious. Don’t get me wrong, I do not encourage this type of behavior. I just think that it is clever. Doing so will not raise any red flag. If people were using this creativity to do good the world would be a better place.

Sean,

Good point. Some countries force foreign companies to reinvest in the country. However, those companies always find a way to transfer profit to their home country. Doing business on an international level is really difficult to the extent that laws and regulations differ across countries.

Those who work in the Accounting function of a business are concerned with tracking and reporting the financial transactions of a business. In fact, they are responsible for managing the general ledger, cash flow management, collections, recognizing revenue, analyzing profitability, reporting earnings, managing debt, and—of course—paying tax…[Read more]

Assume you’re an outside organization with goal to cause negative things to happen to an organization’s Order to Cash (OTC) process. Where would you attack it? Explain Why and Ho

It will depend on what I want (goods or money). If I want the goods, I would attack the shipping process. I would find a way to access the company shipping dat…[Read more]

I think Sales job is just to make the sale and a little bit of marketing (keep the client happy). Also in the business world you can’t say that you won’t pay your bill for any reason. You just have two choice, keep the product and pay or return it and get an refund.
In general, payment are due immediately, 30 days, 60 days… It depends on your…[Read more]

Loi,

We all know that nobody reads those user agreements. And for people who actually read and accept them, I don’t think that they have the right to complain about anything. Plus, I think that using Apple devices is a personal choice. If someone worries about his/her privacy, he/she can always use pay phones.

Thank you for sharing that!

Daniel,

I agree with you. In a financial point of view, this control is cheapest. The only problem is that it will be time consuming and won’t prevent fraud at 100%. However, the fact that the employee knows that there is an inventory reconciliation at the end of the day will push him to well behave. Unless he/she has a good explanation about…[Read more]

This article relates how hackers are impersonating the IRS and sending scam emails to victims asking them to pay balances related to the Affordable Care Act health coverage requirements. Some people have even received letters in their mailboxes and other have received phone calls from the hackers.
“Since October 2013, the Treasury Inspector for…[Read more]

Paul,

You are absolutely right. Most international companies charge different prices according to their location. In fact, this control allow them to mitigate the foreign exchange risk. For example, Apple charges the iPhone 7 at 769€ in France, $899 (CAD) in Canada, and $649 in the US.

Annemarie,

I agree with, excess of inventory is costly and increase the risk of theft. In fact, it is an incentive for the employee to commit fraud. Plus, it is really easy in this case to steal because the excess inventory may not properly racked in the warehouse. Someone can just take what he/she wants.
What about if someone takes something…[Read more]

At the same time, it can be a way for the hackers or other criminal organizations to remain hidden? In fact, some people use VPN because they want to stay anonymous. VPNs present several advantages but they also open new securities issues, as we can’t monitor them.

We are only seeing positive sides of the VPN. What about criminal organizations who use it?

Brou,

I agree with you. I also think this advantage of the VPN can be also a disadvantage in a security point of view. In fact, obtaining IP address from other countries has positive and negative points. Some hackers use it remain hidden.

In fact, VPN allows individual users to establish secure connections with a remote computer network. The users can access the secure resources on that network as if they were directly plugged in to the network’s servers. For example, salespersons of a large firm can access the firm network via VPN when they are in the field.