One of the cornerstones of the audit profession is “Professional Skepticism”. The Generally Accepted Auditing Standards define this as “an attitude that includes a questioning mind and a critical assessment of audit evidence.” It’s this mindset that ensures auditors gather and examine evidence that supports the ultimate audit opinion. That mindset drives the decision making...

Cybercrime is getting more serious by the month.  The bad guys are getting quite smart about tricking people into clicking on fraudulent links or opening up malicious attachments to emails.  They are getting more sophisticated and even making communications look like they are coming from within the organization itself.  We know of clients that have...

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners released their 2020 edition of the Report to the Nations fraud study this month. This study contains over 2,500 cases of occupational fraud that were investigated between January 2018 and January 2019. Although this represents a small fraction of the actual number of frauds committed each year, this study...

With the turn into the new decade, we want to urge our clients to assess and prepare for the years ahead by taking stock of their organization’s exposure to fraud. In the course of our audits, we have seen firsthand how technology’s role in our clients’ organizations has grown. The reliance on technology has increased...

The IRS and state tax authorities have made significant strides in curbing individual identity theft over the last two years. But cyber attacks against businesses are on the upswing. Here are some simple ways business taxpayers can help protect their data from hackers. Trends in ID Theft The IRS recently announced that the number of individuals reporting identity theft in the...

We recently sent out a survey to our clients asking about their use of our Secure Client Portal. We weren’t surprised by the results, so we wanted to provide you some additional information regarding it. Our intent is that more clients will start to utilize this feature. Gardiner Thomsen understands how important security is to...