The issue of cyber crime is fast becoming one of the biggest global challenges to business, although action to reduce the threat it is still perhaps muted, partly due to a lack of regulation. indeed, it is a difficult issue to regulate against, yet the threat to organizations of a cyber attack is high and needs to be attended to. While compliance professionals are not expected to be technological experts, the task of reducing cyber crime risk is increasingly falling within their remit and for many compliance executives, it is becoming their responsibility to raise awareness of the risk of cyber crime throughout the organization, and to ensure that any controls are complied with and monitored. Even with the best policies and controls in place, a company remains susceptible to cyber risk through the event of human error. Training and retraining therefore becomes an essential component of a successful cyber crime policy, and in today’s high risk environment it is advisable. Over the past few years there has been a spike in high profile cases, and cyber criminals often target the larger organizations. Should Know Your Customer data be targeted during a cyber attack, it could cause significant harm to many people and become a much wider issue than the organization under attack. This can result in severe reputational damage and business loss. Extra precautions need to be taken, but with the complexity of the issue, many executives are unsure how to prepare against a potential cyber intervention. Investing large sums of money in high tech solutions, although helpful, is often not enough to reduce the risk of penetration significantly. The best anti-cyber crime software in the world can be rendered useless through lack of attention to detail. Relying too much on technology and not taking care that the human aspect of the operational process is monitored closely enough is a common issue, so while a technological solution is beneficial and necessary, it is the interaction between human intelligence and sophisticated technology that impacts more profoundly on risk. Over the next few years we can expect to see growing regulation to help combat cyber crime. Once the regulation is in place, cyber policies will become increasingly important, and despite a growing remit, the compliance officer is likely to become responsible for ensuring the success of an integrated cyber crime policy. We speak to Abdulhafiz Mansour, Secretary of the Special Investigation Commission, Lebanon & Vice Chairman, MENA, Egmont Group, about the future of cyber strategy and practical steps that can help.