Global Fraud and Risk Report 2019/20 – Technology, Media and Telecoms Overview

Our survey results show that geopolitical issues loom large for the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) industry. Companies in the TMT sector are more likely to have been affected by sanctions, tariffs or changes in trade agreements than those in any other industry (40 percent vs. 27 percent for all industries). The TMT industry is also most likely to have been affected by government influence on a vendor, partner, customer or other entity with which the company does business (62 percent vs. 51 percent for all industries).

The TMT industry is more likely than any other to have experienced significant fraud by external parties (40 percent vs. 28 percent for all industries). Appropriately, TMT respondents are more likely than those in any other industry to make combating this threat a priority (76 percent vs. 68 percent for all industries).

Meanwhile, the TMT industry is least likely to experience fraud by internal parties (17 percent vs. 27 percent for all industries). This may be due in part to corporate cultures that strongly emphasize integrity; in our survey, TMT respondents are among the most likely to agree that their company strives for corporate transparency and accountability. For example, 86 percent of TMT respondents report that serious breaches of risk management processes are met with thorough internal investigations (vs. 75 percent for all industries) and 88 percent assert that employees at their organizations view risk management processes as being effective (vs. 76 percent for all industries).

TMT companies are not at the forefront in the adoption of brand ambassadors and social media influencers—only 5 percent of those organizations say they always use them, vs. 9 percent in all industries—but neither has the industry ruled them out; the TMT industry is the least likely of all industries to say it never uses influencers (16 percent vs. 22 percent for all industries).

The TMT sector has been more aggressive, however, in its adoption of cryptocurrency. This industry is less likely than any other to report having no plans to use crypto (9 percent vs. 19 percent for all industries). And while the share of TMT companies actively using cryptocurrency is roughly average (26 percent vs. 28 percent for all industries), the percentage of them that have established cryptocurrency pilot programs is larger than in any other industry (40 percent vs. 31 percent).

In considering the future, the TMT industry’s outlook is notable for the threats about which it has a lower-than-average level of concern. TMT companies are less likely than those in any other industry to be concerned about the possibility of a significant financial crisis (57 percent vs. 69 percent for all industries). They are also notably less likely than average to be concerned about the effects of either military conflict (41 percent vs. 51 percent for all industries) or disruptions caused by artificial intelligence or other technologies (47 percent vs. 56 percent for all industries).