Thoughts from a real life "M"

A real life “M” visited PwC recently. Sir John Scarlett, the former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) spoke at a breakfast function that I was lucky enough to attend. A lot of it was top secret of course, but there were a few things I was authorised to share.

Firstly, there were a lot of questions from the audience about technology and about the current geopolitical environment. What I noticed in Sir John’s responses were some familiar themes that struck both a leadership and fraud prevention chord with me.

According to Sir John, key factors in underpinning an organisation (or country)’s security are knowing your people, and training them to be your “eyes and ears”. Quite basic things that you only notice you’ve overlooked when something goes wrong.

He also talked about how organisations should work out what is really valuable to them, and then concentrate their security efforts on protecting those assets. An important part of this protection process is being aware of the threats you face and vulnerabilities you have. Technology has been a great leveler for espionage, he said, and I know this to be the case for fraud too: small players in faraway places are just as likely to be a threat to your company as the local crooks.

Finally, he emphasised that security at an organisation begins with its leadership; it must be a strategic leadership responsibility, and unless it is taken seriously from the top, then it won’t receive the attention it needs.

He had some other messages about Russia, China, US, 9/11 and sharing information between countries, but in case that’s top secret I better save it for another day.

Stephen

Note:

PwC assists clients with all elements of fraud prevention, detection and response, including training, conducting risk assessments and assessing the maturity of fraud control frameworks and culture. Please let us know by contacting us via the contact details below if you would like to discuss how we might be able to assist you.

M is the fictional head of MI6 from Ian Fleming’s James Bond. In the movie Skyfall, M is revealed to be short for Emma played by Dame Judi Dench. Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Mallory takes over as M the end of the film, assumes the moniker M and reappears in Spectre. On 26 April 2019, the cast of Bond25 was revealed at Goldeneye, Fleming’s former Villa where he wrote all the Bond novels.