Accounting 571: Advanced Accounting Information Systems | Computer Fraud | | By | [Type the author name] | 9/14/2013 |

DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management |

A University of Oklahoma student was charged with computer fraud on May 16, 2013 by the Cleveland County District Court. The University of Oklahoma student, Roja Osman Hamad, is accused of improperly changing his grades. Roja Hamad now faces five counts of computer fraud. Mr. Hamad was a former student employee of the university’s information technology department. This is where Mr. Hamad was able to access the university’s computer system to change six faculty member’s passwords without the faculty member’s permission. University official’s state, Roja Hamad broke into the university’s computer system and changed his grades. Roja Hamad fits the majority of the profile of the average fraud perpetrator. According to the ACFE, the average fraud perpetrator has no prior fraud charges or convictions and is more likely to be male rather than female. The ACFE states that the offender is commonly between the ages of 31-45. Even though Mr. Hamad is only 24 years old, he possessed the knowledge to commit the fraud. Since Roja Hamad was a student employee of the university, he was probably a trusted employee. As a trusted employee of the University, this gave Hamad an opportunity to perpetuate the fraud. Lack of proper internal controls, failure to enforce controls, and incompetent management personnel enabled Hamad to commit the fraud. The three elements of the opportunity triangle are commit, conceal, and convert. Commit refers to the theft or misappropriation of an asset. Conceal is when the perpetrator hides the fraud. Convert refers to when a fraud perpetuator converts the property to another form. Roja Hamad was able to commit the fraud due to a lack of proper internal control systems. He was able to conceal the perpetuated fraud since the six faculty members never realized that their passwords were changed. Hamad could easily access the university’s computer system undetected since he changed faculty’s passwords. When Hamad perpetuated the fraud against the University, he was able to change his grades to improve his GPA. This allowed Hamad to log-in to the computer system as one of the faculty. Roja Hamad was motivated to change his grades due to the pressure to increase his Grade Point Average (GPA). If Hamad was not doing well in some of his classes, he could access the university’s computer system with the faculty passwords and change his grades from anything below an A to an A. If Hamad was almost failing a class during the semester, Hamad was able to change some of the grades to reflect a better score during each semester. Hamad may have felt the pressures from his family to do well and graduate with a high GPA. Hamad could have also been upset with the University. This would have caused him to resent the University. Hamad may have perpetuated the fraud as a challenge to see if he could beat the system. Some of the red flags that the university should have discovered were Hamad’s behavior may have changed. This change could have been resentment for the university or even resentment of the faculty. If Hamad had perpetuated the fraud to try and beat the system, Hamad may have been paranoid with everyone around him. This would have resulted from his fear of being caught. Other behavioral changes can include being “easily annoyed at reasonable questioning, providing unreasonable responses to questions, and rewriting records under the guise of neatness in presentation.” (ACFE, 2011) The university should have noticed that faculty’s passwords were logging into the computer system at odd times, odd frequencies, or an unusual amount of times. Many times organizations do not want to prosecute white collar criminals due to the negative public exposure of the fraud. The consumer and investor may lose faith in an organization that is susceptible to fraud. By not reporting the white collar crime, the company will not have to fear the negative reputation for the company. Many times, the organization does not report the white-collar crime due to it does not know it was a victim of fraud. Even though the University reported Hamad’s fraud, many organizations still do not report white collar crimes. If an organization fails to report a white-collar crime committed against their organization, this will open the door for more white-collar criminals to perpetuate frauds against them. Most criminals will manipulate an organizations internal control system if they know that the organization will not prosecute. Law enforcement officials could encourage more prosecutions of white-collar crimes if they would require companies to report and prosecute fraud. This would hold the organizations responsible if they know that a fraud committed. If every organization were to prosecute all perpetuated frauds, this would send a message that any type of fraud will not be tolerated. Another way law enforcement officials could encourage more prosecution would be to make the white-collar criminal prosecutions private. This would help the organization not worry about the negative publicity that would arise from the fraud. The University could have prevented Hamad from accessing the university’s computer system by having a strong internal control system and by separation of duties. There were many things the University could have done to prevent the fraud. The University should have trained all employees in integrity and ethical behavior. All employees of the university should have also been trained in security and fraud prevention methods. The security and fraud prevention methods should include the faculty keeping their computer passwords private and secure. If the faculty gave Hamad their passwords for the university’s computer system, this would have caused the internal control systems integrity to be compromised. Other internal controls the University could have used include “installing fraud detection software, employ a computer security officer, use intrusion detection software, and monitor system activities.” (ACFE, 2011) The University should develop a culture that stresses integrity. They should implement a policy that discusses what the university expects from the students and faculty. The policy should send a message that the university does not tolerate unethical

REFERENCES

Sillas, Allen (2013, May 29). University of Oklahoma student Charged With Computer Fraud in Grade-Changing Case Retrieved by http://newsok.com/university-of-oklahoma-student-charged-with-computer-fraud-in-grade-changing-case/article/3836621

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (2011). Fundamentals of Computer Crime and Internet Fraud Retrieved by http://www.acfe.com/uploadedFiles/Shared_Content/Products/Self-Study_CPE/fundamentals-of-computer-and-internet-fraud-2011-chapter-excerpt.pdf