As 2016 comes to a close, I want to look back on the events that made this year unique in ways both rewarding and challenging – and summarize the topics Protiviti professionals discussed, and our readers engaged with, here on The Protiviti View.
Perhaps the most seminal events of 2016 with the biggest implications were Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as president. The Brexit was brought about by sovereignty and immigration issues as those who voted to leave the European Union believed the UK – and no one else – should address UK-related decisions and control over its own borders. The U.S. presidential election arose from many issues such as immigration, trade, healthcare reform and jobs, among others.
We covered the implications of these events, both general and industry-specific, in special reports (here and here) and on the blog (here and here). But other events made waves too – record-setting security breaches across industries, including massive unauthorized release of financial data from offshore accounts, and DDoS attacks enabled by the Internet of Things.
In technology, Google’s AI robot AlphaGo defeated GO champion Lee Sedol, and Uber launched its fleet of driverless cars despite some opposition. Both of these events speak to the future of artificial intelligence, an emerging risk we continue to track in our PreView newsletter). Also in technology, the financial services industry seems poised for change and excited by the possibilities of new financial technology in payments, compliance and more.
Finally, natural disasters and viral diseases like the Zika virus created real economic damage, raising questions about resource availability and business continuity planning. We summarized the potential implications of these unpredictable business disruptors here.
Given the flavor of events this year, it is not surprising our top two most read blog posts had to do with cybersecurity and cyber awareness. Our third most popular blog had to do with money laundering and increased regulatory scrutiny in that area.
The posts that saw the most love on social media were submitted by our fraud investigation experts and focused on fraud prevention and fraud risk management. 2016 was a big year in fraud, as the much-awaited Fraud Risk Management Guide was released by COSO and the FCPA launched its Pilot Program. (Also, SEC gave six out of its 10 highest whistleblower awards this year).
Also widely shared was anything related to cybersecurity and the protection of personal identity, an issue that continues to affect billions of people and to which no company or entity seems to be immune.
This is plenty to look back on and think about in planning for the new year. Once again, I want to thank both our readers and contributors for their participation and engagement. We look forward to continuing these conversations in 2017.
Jim DeLoach
