Anti-Money Laundering Computer Programs Essay

Rapid technological advancements have brought with it information security risks which pose a threat to financial institutions and the government of the United States of America. A renowned threat is money laundering that is on the rise in the majority of financial institutions which are either privately owned or managed by the government. Institutions are faced with the challenge of not developing a competitive edge to curb the activities of money laundering causing enormous loses in the financial institutions or the government agencies. The main reason as to this challenge is that loopholes and new data breaches are experienced daily. Moreover, the system hacks and breaches to data are considered to be the norm.

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Money laundering in the financial institutions begins with the introduction of money acquired illegally in the financial system. The process of layering follows which entails the creation of transaction layers for instance by the use of shell companies, use of multiple accounts and different geographies. The last process is the integration of the illegal money, whereby, the money is made to come up with legitimate assets such that it is difficult to accurately determine the real value of the asset over time, an example of assets produced may be real estates. The proceeds of the money can then be used to carry out illegal activities, consequently, is considered to be clean money. War against money laundering in government agencies and financial institutions is not easily sustainable. This can be caused by a number of reasons that include inefficient approaches, lack of latest technological power, old traditional approaches, and unethical control officers to man the entire system against money laundering among other reasons.

The threat to money laundering calls for the development of a computer system, that will be able to identify money laundering activities, within the financial institutions and government agencies in the United States of America. The system will be required to extract data from the database containing crucial information about the purchases and patterns of travel that may provide a hint and significant leads on the activities that lead to money laundering. The goal of the system, therefore, is to get hold of money laundering individuals, consequently, disrupting the entire activity of money laundering from the initial stage of planning. The program will be ideally significant because it will have the ability to mimic in real-time, how the money laundering is performed, moreover, giving out the patterns of money laundering activities in the united states of America financial institutions and the government agencies. There exist some limitations to the use of this program to track the money laundering activities across the United States because the program will be required to do a general check rather than specifically directed checks. This will prove to be a challenge as the integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity of the financial information of the people of the United States of America would be compromised. Therefore, this limitation bring us to the next phase of discussion that entails the ethical and moral issues that will arise as a result of developing the computer program ,which will be capable of violating the privacy of the people of the United States of America financial data, and information with the intention of fighting money laundering in the government agencies and the financial institutions.

Ethical and Moral Issues to Privacy and How It Plays About

Every individual in the United States has the right to privacy and confidentiality of their crucial data and information; hence, financial information is of no exception. Therefore, all the information security system to be developed to fight against money laundering in the United States should be able to guarantee confidentiality and integrity of crucial information. This move is considered to be the basis of all the information security programs to prevent the misuse of the financial information of the people of the United States of America. To address the moral issues, professionals to information security have to develop procedures and policies, governance models, that will resolve the three ethical dilemmas of information security that include confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of an individual's financial information.

When the confidentiality of a person's financial information is compromised, this may lead to additional harm and violation of individual rights. Unethical conduct is characterized by the third party compromising the confidentiality of data and information by extracting, obtaining copies, and eventual distribution of the financial information of an individual. This unethical conduct is against the law and violates the property rights, for instance, the intellectual property rights of the individual. Intellectual property rights are enshrined in the constitution of the United States and give an individual the sole right to own and utilize intellectual creation, for instance, the literary works and other artistic creations, and no one else is not to contravene this right. Moreover, an individual is the sole dictator of the information and has the power to determine who should access what information and for which purpose, consequently, to what extent.

Moreover, violation of confidentiality translates to the contravening of privacy rights. This includes the access to individuals' information that is considered to be private such as the date of birth. This information is crucial as it can be used to carry out illegal operations without the consent of the owner.

Information breach poses the ethical dilemma of the availability of an individuals' financial data and other crucial information. This can be done when the program is run to trace the financial activities of the people; hence, they will be required to wait a little longer to have access to their financial information. This violates the freedom of information as an individual may not be able to access their information when they need it in real-time. Financial information is considered to be a basic social good as individuals use their finances in their daily living. Shutting down their financial information will be akin to compromising their daily financial support that aid in operating their daily activities.

Importance of Anti-money Laundering Computer Program

The development of Anti-Money Laundering programs will play the pivotal role in the detection of suspicious activities in the financial institutions and government agencies. The program is significant as it can report any suspicious patterns in the movement of finances in the institution. There are instances when the financial institutions may not be able to detect abnormal movement of finances inside their organization. Therefore, the computer program comes in to uncover the unseen suspicious activities. Other anti-money laundering programs contain information to identify and stop individuals involved in money laundering. This will help in curbing instances of corruption that hinder the development of the United States of America.