...Insider Trading More Americans are involved in the stock market than ever before, investing for their retirement and hoping to achieve financial security. But, the stock market has been anything but secure over the years. In fact, after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, so many Americans lost money and confidence in the stock market that Congress passed specific securities laws to help protect investors and to prevent the abuses believed to have contributed to the collapse. The Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 were enacted by congress with the intent of protecting investors engaged in securities transactions and assuring public confidence in the integrity of the securities markets.1 The government also created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect the financial markets by enforcing the Securities Exchange Act.2 One of the most important issues covered by the Securities Exchange Act concerns illegal insider trading in which individuals sell or purchase investments based on privileged inside information. Illegal insider trading activities significantly harm the integrity and stability of the securities markets. Thus, it is critical for people to understand and adhere to the requirements set forth by the Securities Exchange Act to prevent illegal insider trading, and it is equally important for those individuals who break the law and engage in these prohibited activities to be prosecuted and punished accordingly. There are two forms...
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...Data classification is defined as categorizing data to make it the most efficient and effective way possible. In basic approaches to classifying data one can classify data according to its critical value, how often it needs to be accessed, etc. One example of this is by breaking down data in to multiple uses. Technical data is usually critical and often used, so storing that kind of data you would want to put it on a fast access media, as opposed to administrative or legal data could be stored on media that would not require fast access speeds. If an Engineer for a company can classify data correctly, and accurately, essential data is easier to find thus making its access faster. To successfully implement a data security program, a few things have to be considered and researched. In order to start in the right direction, you would need to perform a Risk Analysis. A Risk Analysis will identify the key critical data in a company, and determine its functionality. At the root, it is really a process of identifying all assets related to the company. It can be vary tedious depending on the structure and functionality of the company that’s conducting a Risk Analysis because of the time involved. Once you define the assets, now you would move on to what the possible threats to those resources would be. Risk Management is the proper term to describe this process. Threats could be anything from viruses, compromised passwords, etc. You would have to break into a group, for example, “System...
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...In defense of non legalization of insider trading in the U.S. I will discuss and analyze the ethical issues. Although shareholders that buy and sell stock in their own companies are doing so legally, I believe the influence to cross the line is too much of a temptation. With illegal insider trading often being difficult to prove and strenous to investigate we should not legalize insider trading. Buying or selling security, in breach of trust and confidence , while in possession of material, non public information about the security is just unethical. Its too much like cheating. The ethical issue here is that using or bribbing to get information before it is publicly disclosed is a decison that lacks integrity. It is dishonest and unfair. Illegal trading is done without respect for investors and stakeholders as they are left with a false picture of the companies financial status in many cases. How would you feel if you paid to enter a contest where you bid how many jelly beans where in a jar to win a prize, only to find out that the person who counted the jelly beans was tipped by your opponent to tell them how many jelly beans where actually in the jar before he bid with you. The person that counted could say they didnt know the jelly beans where being used in a bid, therefore was unaware of the impact of disclosing such information. This is minor compare to the millions at stake in actuall insider trading but the result are often the same. Judges are left to prove illegal trading...
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...public confidence in the integrity of the securities markets.1 The government also created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect the financial markets by enforcing the Securities Exchange Act.2 One of the most important issues covered by the Securities Exchange Act concerns illegal insider trading in which individuals sell or purchase investments based on privileged inside information. Illegal insider trading activities significantly harm the integrity and stability of the securities markets. Thus, it is critical for people to understand and adhere to the requirements set forth by the Securities Exchange Act to prevent illegal insider trading, and it is equally important for those individuals who break the law and engage in these prohibited activities to be prosecuted and punished accordingly. There are two forms of insider trading, one that is considered legal and the other that is clearly illegal. The legal form of insider trading involves corporate officers and directors who buy and sell stock within their own companies on the basis on publically available information. So, once the company releases confidential information to the public, then the insiders are allowed to legally make their trades based on that...
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...under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both." The primary goal of Sarbanes-Oxley was to create accountability for companies' financial statements. This was accomplished with Section 302, which required chief financial officers to certify that the financial reports "fairly present in all material respects the financial condition" of the company. Another provision of the act prohibits certain internal shifting of funds Section 402 states that it is illegal for a company to "extend or maintain credit, to arrange for the extension of credit, or to renew an extension of credit, in the form of a loan to or for any director or executive officer" of the company (Ramos, 2008). The act places greater controls on insider activities. The SEC defines an insider as an executive...
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...TPS, DSS, and EIS all house sensitive information that is crucial to a company’s success. The overriding theme of these three systems is to aid in improving a company’s efficiency and productivity. Each system accomplishes these goals, increased efficiency and productivity, by specializing in certain aspects of information and combining them to form a progress report so that a company may note its strengths and weaknesses. The three systems (TPS, DSS, and EIS) build off of one another, with TPS being at the bottom and DSS and EIS at the top, to an organized report of business operations. The TPS is the basic busi9ness system that serves analysts in an organization. This system collects and stores data such as payroll, shipping, and inventory data. This data progresses up to the managerial level to help form the DSS. The DSS summarizes TPS data into categories like sales data and transportation data and is crucial in forming managerial reports. Much like the DSS, the EIS summarizes TPS data in combination with external information (i.e. stock market info.) to create executive reports. While I am sure there are countless ways an employees can use sensitive data to damage his company I am only going to cover a few. If an employee decided to steal DSS data the given company could run the risk of being passed by a competitor. Most companies are likely to do anything to gain an advantage on a competitor so if an employee, with access to sensitive data, decides to sell information...
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...time cyber-attacks have more than doubled, while hitting the financial side with an estimated 40 percent increase. The cost of cybercrime study in 2012, conducted by Ponemon Institute, found that cybercrime costs to a random sample of organizations averaged 8.9 million dollars. This spike is estimated to have increased the cost of cybercrime by 6 percent from 2011 and 38 percent from 2010. Also during this study it was discovered that there had been a huge increase of cyber-attacks, approximately 48 percent, with around 102 of them being successful per week. The number of successful attacks per week in 2010 was only around 50. More than 78 percent of the annual cybercrime can be labeled as denial of service, malicious code, malevolent insiders, and stolen or hijacked devices. Businesses have no choice but to spend an increasing amount of money, time, and energy in order to protect themselves against these cyber-attacks that seem to be reaching unsustainable levels. Even though some companies are finding ways to lower the cost of security measures, the cost of time and energy spent cannot be eased. No matter what the solution is, it will always take time to incorporate any security and energy to maintain those securities. Additional key findings include: * Information theft and business disruption continue to represent the highest external costs. On an annual basis, information theft accounts for 44 percent of total external costs, up 4 percent from 2011. Disruption to business...
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...many transactions that occur on a daily basis, companies are prone to making an error in their accounting practices. Most of the time, the errors that occur are not discovered until a few years down the road. This can have a negative impact on the company because they are reporting incorrect data. In this paper, I will discuss Bridgestone Education Inc and the errors that they found in their accounting principles. I will analyze the accounting principles involved in the error; the effect of errors and changes on the financial statement, and the effect the errors have on the stockholders. In the year 2014, Bridgestone Education Inc released a statement claiming that they are looking into the accounting practices of the previous years because they found an error in the reports. According to “Street insider” (2014), “Management has concluded that there are material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, as we did not maintain effective controls over the selection and application of accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) related to revenue recognition and restricted cash.” (Bridgepoint Education (BPI) to Restate 2013 Financial Statements). The error that occurred in the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013 is an error in analyzing the collectability criterion for revenue...
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...By Mike Geary Certified Personal Trainer Certified Nutrition Specialist Author/Founder of TruthAboutAbs.com COPYRIGHT© 2007 All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................1 2.0 TRAINING STRATEGIES..................................................................................................................5 2.1 Bad Cardio vs. Good Cardio......................................................................................................6 2.2 Body Part Isolation vs. Complex Movements in Strength Training ...................................9 2.3 Tired of the Same Old 3 Sets of 10? So is Your Body! Discover How to Manipulate Training Variables ............................................................................................................................. 11 2.4 Your Workouts Need Both Consistency and Variability for Max Results...................... 13 2.5 The Ultimate Hard-Body Exercise ......................................................................................... 15 2.6 Barbell, Kettlebell, and Dumbbell Complexes - a Different Style of Weight Training for a Ripped Body ................................................................................................................................... 18 2.7 Top 15 Non-Traditional, Muscle-Building, Fat Blasting Workouts!................................. 22 3.0...
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...investment broker. This relationship soon went past initial flirting, to where both parties became complicit in sharing of nonpublic information (insider trading). Soon after, Donna Murdoch, began to tip off more investors, such as Richard Branson, who she also meet on Ashley Madison and became her “go to” source of income to play these trades. All of these transactions began to catch the attention of SEC, who were tipped off based on the volume of option contracts, which in some cases Mrs. Murdoch was the sole buyer of. This attention by the SEC soon led to a full blown investigation, which exposed the relationship between Murdoch and Gansman. This relationship when exposed led to charges and convictions for both Gansman and Murdoch; however it put more of a spotlight on Ashley Madison, and made some question the ethics of a company like Ashley Madison. However, when the founder and his wife discuss how they feel about it ethically, they see it as a legitimate business within the confines of the law. Although this remains an unresolved debate that rages on today on whether a business basing itself on “unethical behavior “is in fact ethical. Analysis of the case The case was unique in a way as it made us realize that unethical behavior in a business sense can be related back to unethical behavior in a social sense. For example, insider trading is considered to be more of legal crime/business crime than a social crime and when found out upon is punished by a legal system...
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...Below is a free essay on "Whistleblowing" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. Whistleblowing is a highly controversial and widely discussed topic in today’s society due to many high profile cases including the circumstances surrounding the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion and what was documented in the movie The Insider about the tobacco industry. Ethically, the decision for someone to whistleblow is a tremendous one. The person needs to weigh many factors and take many things into consideration before making that step. This paper will use the movie The Insider, Ethical Theory and Business and material collected from the internet to (1) discuss definitions and conditions of whistleblowing; what motivates whistleblowers; ethical and other considerations including risks and typical results of whistleblowing cases. Definitions and conditions of whistleblowing “A whistleblower is an individual that believes that his or her organization is engaged in or willingly permits unethical, unlawful or otherwise reprehensible activities. Whistleblowers bring attention to the objectionable activity and attempt to effect change. Whistleblowers generally report these actions internally and may ultimately resort to reporting these activities to external authorities or interested parties.” (http:cosign.scu. edu505set01003WhistleblowerProfile.htm) In the essay “Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility” published in Ethical Theory and...
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...Insider Trading: Education, Prevention, and Rule 10b5-1 Plans Speaker: Bruce Brumberg, Esq. Editor-in-Chief, myStockOptions.com Producer, Think Twice videos, InsiderTradingVideos.com Copyright © 2007, myStockPlan.com, Inc. Please do not distribute or copy without permission Roadmap for Presentation • Overview of various cases and interesting themes • Fundamentals of insider trading law • Compliance programs • Rule 10b5-1 trading plans • SEC investigations • Martha Stewart case: lessons and training 2 HEADING Shares sold in cases of insider trading often come from option exercises or restricted stock vesting. 3 Accounting scandals/fraud intertwined with insider trading. Insider trading cases more interesting to juries and easier for prosecutors to explain. Did the CEO sell stock knowing his company could not make its earnings targets without improperly booking revenue? 4 The SEC detects and prosecutes even small-profit cases. $38,000 in profits by former CFO. 5 Criminal charges are now more likely. Justice Department and local US Attorneys interested in these cases. Ex-Countrywide execs get probation terms for insider trading By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES—November 26, 2007 Three former Countrywide Financial Corp. executives who pleaded guilty to criminal charges of insider trading were sentenced Monday to serve three years probation, the U.S. attorney's office said. They must also serve several hundred hours of community...
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...Fantasy Sports Mixed With Stock Market Play In Real-Time Kevin VanDusen University of Phoenix ECO/561 May 5, 2014 Resubmitted May 10, 2014 Fantasy Sports has become a long time favorite to many sports enthusiasts. This service has allowed the ability to select players from their favorite sports teams and form a customized team to use to compete against others for the ability to brag how your team is better than theirs. For those who want to be a part of the action but do not have the time for a draft can select to be a part of an auto draft where the system will choose your team for you. Both these are offered at no expense to the customer. Overtime services have been expanded into the market to include the ability to pay an entrance fee and compete for a pot of money collected at the end. Recently many new websites have been developed that enhance the game and adds changes to how it is played. One example of this is a website by the name of tradesports.com. This new website has formed a difference from others in that players can now pay and make changes to player line-ups during the game. Many have associated this with a form of stock market because of the ability to buy and sell positions based on current standings of the game, such as “over/under and whether a player will score above a certain number of points.” (Heitner, Darren 05/05/2014, Forbes Magazine) This service does require users to make a minimum amount of money that must be spent on each...
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...door for malicious activity that could damage the company’s system, compromise company and customer information, and cost a great amount of precious time and money. A breach in the network could have a negative impact on finances, privacy, and information. Securing the Windows and Unix/Linux servers within a company from shortcomings and vulnerabilities to potential threats by both outsiders and insiders is an absolute necessity. This is achieved by using technical measures and enforcing security policies. One reason it is important to secure the servers is potential of the insider threat. With 1,500 employees, the chance of an attack from the inside is elevated. The threat could come in the form of a disgruntled employee, by someone looking for gain, or by someone who unknowingly compromises the system. Conklin and White (2010) stated the following: One of the hardest threats that security professionals will have to address is that of the insider. Since employees already have access to the organization and its assets, additional mechanisms need to be in place to detect attacks by insiders and to lessen the ability of these attacks to succeed. (p.9) It may be difficult to determine who these individuals are, but the threat can be dramatically decreased by putting the appropriate security measures in place. There are several methods IT security should take to ensure the network infrastructure is more secure. One approach is by implementing technical...
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...Deloitte Consulting WetFeet Insider Guide 2005 Edition The WetFeet Research Methodology You hold in your hands a copy of the best-quality research available for job seekers. We have designed this Insider Guide to save you time doing your job research and to provide highly accurate information written precisely for the needs of the job-seeking public. (We also hope that you’ll enjoy reading it, because, believe it or not, the job search doesn’t have to be a pain in the neck.) Each WetFeet Insider Guide represents hundreds of hours of careful research and writing. We start with a review of the public information available. (Our writers are also experts in reading between the lines.) We augment this information with dozens of in-depth interviews of people who actually work for each company or industry we cover. And, although we keep the identity of the rank-and-file employees anonymous to encourage candor, we also interview the company’s recruiting staff extensively, to make sure that we give you, the reader, accurate information about recruiting, process, compensation, hiring targets, and so on. (WetFeet retains all editorial control of the product.) We also regularly survey our members and customers to learn about their experiences in the recruiting process. Finally, each Insider Guide goes through an editorial review and fact-checking process to make sure that the information and writing live up to our exacting standards before it goes out the door. Are we perfect? No—but...
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