Cyber thieves steal hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the bank accounts of U.S. businesses. Hijacking business email accounts, cyber criminals will often impersonate company CEOs/CFOs and send bogus emails that lead to fraudulent withdraws from business accounts. Often dubbed “whale phishing”, this practice is on the rise having victimized more than 22,000 companies in the last three years with losses totaling over $3.1 billion.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
- Reach out to your bank and discuss security options. A number of fraud prevention solutions are available to businesses to help them protect the security of payments and account information.
- Limit the number of employees within a business who have the authority to approve and/or conduct wire transfers.
- Follow up with any email requests involving monetary transactions, either by phone or in-person.
- Instruct employees to delay approval of transactions when contacted by the bank with questions about a transaction.
- Dedicate a single workstation to be used only for financial transactions.
- Change passwords often and make them increasingly difficult.
- Educate and generate awareness. By proactively training your employees on tactics cyber criminals use, you can greatly reduce your risk of being victimized.
