Accounting Information Systems: Protection Breached

Is this a true or false statement? "Companies should not be held liable for losses sustained in a successful attack made on their AIS by outside sources." Most sources say if the security is in place and properly installed it should be a rare instance when the AIS is attacked and made vulnerable by outside sources. Hacking is an unpredictable intrusion. Liability is usually on the party who acted in negligence. The argument here is justly made that no company should be punished for a breach in security if the company has prepared for such an attack. The result of this leniency could be detrimental to the integrity of the company and their ability to protect their consumer’s proprietary information or even their own financial records. Information Systems are manmade and are unlikely to be infallible but it is the Information Technicians duty to insure the system is being tweaked and adjusted to avoid the onslaught of intruders. Accident forgiveness is the slogan for Allied Insurance they may be on to something based upon who is liable because they are already accident prone. If the company has no prior issues with hackers they should not be held liable but if it is an ongoing occurrence than most definitely there are issues with the protection and the company is held responsible and also a suspect in a fraud case.
Who are the major players when determining the liability? The highest number of attacks stems from employees or contracted workers. The Board, in particular the Treasurer, Executive Director, Director for Finance, Business Manager, Accountants (e.g., General Ledger, Payroll, A/R, A/P, Fixed Assets...), Data Entry clerks. Protect the Company by having the employees sign a policy protection can allow for the company to shift the liability to the person caught breaching security. The people who have access are the first form of contact with the AIS. With any Accounting Information System a solid Procedure and instructions method separates each

Cited: Fontinelle, A. (2011, July 28). Introduction to Accounting Information. Retrieved May 19, 2012, from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com