Management must also establish a set of procedures to ensure control compliance and enforcement. The corporate information security officer and the operations staff are typically responsible for ensuring that control procedures are followed. It is especially important to ensure that control activities are in place dunng the end-of-the-year holiday season. Research shows that a disproportionate amount of computer fraud and security break-ins takes place during this time. Some reasons for this are (1) extended employee vacations and fewer people to "mind the store," (2)students out of school with more time on their hands, and (3) counterculture hackers getting lonely this time of year and increasing their attacks on systems. Generally, control procedures fall into one of the following categories: 1. Proper authorization of transactions and activities 2. Segregation of duties 3. Project development and acquisition controls 4. Change management controls 5. Design and use of documents and records 6. Safeguarding assets, records, and data 7. Independent checks on performance Focus 6-1 on the next page discusses how a violation of specific control activities, combined with internal environment factors, resulted in fraud within a Midwestern school district.