CHANDLER, Ariz., Sept. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics for defrauding businesses and tend to increase these efforts during times of public confusion and crisis, such as the world has experienced over the last 18 months.
In 2020, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) fielded 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime – more than double the number from 2019 – and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion impacting businesses and individuals. The cybersecurity consulting firm CyberEdge also reported that last year more than 86% of organizations they surveyed weathered successful cyberattacks.
In this environment, companies need internal responses that are grounded in solid cybersecurity policies. But they must also go further, encompassing executive oversight, carefully crafted control procedures and the human resources needed to carry them out. Fortunately, there are many effective steps organizations can take to mitigate cybersecurity threats. Some of these best practices are discussed below.
Strategy 1: Document critical online banking processes for your company – and stick to them
To protect your company's funds and individuals' personal identifiable information, it's important to document carefully the processes your company uses for critical banking processes. These should specify who has access to the company's accounts – with updates if these people change – and outline, in detail, steps to be taken if those people aren't available.
Strategy 2: Protect against Business Email Compromises
Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud is one of the most financially dangerous categories of phishing cybercrime and a massive threat to U.S. businesses. BEC criminals use emails to trick recipients into initiating a fraudulent financial transaction, often by impersonating a high-ranking executive or a vendor/supplier. Most often, BEC scams target employees, such as financial directors and accountants, who typically are authorized to initiate a wire transfer.
According to the FBI, phishers have stolen over 5.3 billion dollars in these scams. To protect your business against BECs:
- Use the fewest number of dedicated computers necessary for critical online banking functions – and limit their use as feasible.
- Don't use email to store personally identifiable information.
- Train all employees to avoid clicking URLs in suspicious emails or open documents from unknown senders. Malicious emails usually have some telltale identifiers, like unusual grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax errors and/or email addresses that you can't identify. If there's any doubt about the legitimacy of an email, the recipient should call the sender to verify before opening.
- If someone on your team falls prey to a BEC crime involving your bank account or other financial information, immediately contact Alliance Association Bank or other institutions that might be involved.
- Next, notify the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center as soon as possible, ideally within 72 hours.
Strategy 3: Back up critical data regularly
Do this at least once a week or as often as it is applicable for your organization. Assign responsibility for this task to someone and keep at least two copies of backed up data in two different physical locations.
Strategy 4: Get the most out of the cybersecurity tools you already have in your systems
Maintain the tools that protect your computers and servers from viruses and malware and update them regularly.
Strategy 5: Run tests on your own cybersecurity measures to make sure they're working as they should Investigate firms that can test your cyber controls with a service called pentration testing. These firms act as white hack hackers and will attempt to access your environment, and then report to you on its weaknesses. You can also find vendors that provide tools for phishing testing or phishing simulation. These vendors and tools can send your team emails that simulate a phishing attack. They will then report back to you with a list of employees who are prone to click on suspicious emails.
Strategy 6: Periodically review your cybersecurity processes
Review your critical banking process and your cyber control with all stakeholders to ensure they're still relevant to your business and industry best practices. Make sure all levels of management and employees know their role in the process. Adjust the plan when you onboard or off board vendors, suppliers or employees.
While there are no one-size-fits-all solution for every business, the actions described here can go a long way toward helping any business increase data security and protect their data and assets.
For more information about Alliance Association Bank or to watch a recent virtual training on cybersecurity that can be shared within your organization, please contact Stacy Dyer, Senior Director of Alliance Association Bank at (843) 637-7181 or [email protected].
About Alliance Association Bank
Alliance Association Bank, a division of Western Alliance Bank, provides financing solutions to the growing community management and homeowner association industries with a high level of expertise and responsiveness. This specialized organization offers a wide range of innovative banking products and services designed to create efficiencies, reduce costs and increase revenue. Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is the primary subsidiary of Phoenix-based Western Alliance Bancorporation, with approximately $50 billion in assets. Western Alliance is again #1 best-performing of the 50 largest public U.S. banks in the new S&P Global Market Intelligence listing for 2020 and ranks high on the Forbes "Best Banks in America" list year after year. Serving clients across the country wherever business happens, Western Alliance Bank operates individually branded, full-service banking divisions and has offices in key markets nationwide. For more information, visit allianceassociationbank.com.
Media Contact
Stacy Dyer, Alliance Association Bank, (843) 637-7181, [email protected]
SOURCE Alliance Association Bank
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