Do you really need to be concerned about cyberfraud prevention? Yes, because you have a lot more to worry about than receiving an oddly-worded email from a fake oil tycoon’s widow asking to use your personal bank account to transfer $10m of embezzled company funds for a 20% commission. According to The Guardian, cyber-attacks are on the rise and you need to make sure that your business is prepared for the worst.

In this article, the Burton Beavan team will explain the nature and type of threats your business could be facing and how to stop these attacks before they happen.

What is financial cyber fraud?

Financial cyber fraud comes in two main forms which are:

• Stealing your customers’ financial information

Hackers will use many ways to try to obtain your customers’ financial information, for example their credit card details. They try this by looking for ways to break into your network to access the data directly or via “phishing” if the card details are not stored on customers’ files. Phishing is a popular technique that involves sending emails to people with the hopes that they will reveal their information (think fake emails you get from Amazon, eBay, etc asking you to log in because there is a “problem” with your account).

• Assuming your identity or your customers’ identities

Hackers will also try to gain as much information about your company and its clients in order to carry out identity fraud. Examples of identity fraud include using a person or a company’s details to obtain loans or credit lines. Cybercriminals will also look for ways to access your company bank account.

Both of these types of fraud can seriously damage your company’s reputation and even land you a fine if it is found that you haven’t put the necessary security measures in place.

So, what can you do to prevent this from happening?

How you can protect your business

Here are our 4 top tips for securing your business against cyber fraud:

• Monitor your business’ bank accounts

Your customers aren’t the only ones who can have their information stolen. If you have purchased anything through your business using a stored credit card (as you can on Amazon Business and PayPal), then yours too may be at risk.

Keep a close eye on all of your business’ bank accounts to make sure that there are no unexpected or suspicious transactions. The sooner you recognise that there is a problem, the more damage you can avoid in the future.

• Update your IT infrastructure and e-commerce

This is a broad topic. IT infrastructure covers everything from firewalls to malware protection, technology you should certainly be investing in.

You have a lock on the door for your business so you should have a strong intrusion, anti-virus, and anti-malware protection for your computer system for the same reason – security for your business’s vital assets. Please also remember to keep your software up to date with the latest security patches and to disable automatic downloading of Flash Player and Java files.

• Get certified

By gaining the Cyber Essentials Certification issued by the government, you will be able to protect your company from at least 80% of cyber-attacks. Not only will this help secure your business, but it will also demonstrate to your customers that you can be trusted with their personal information.

In some industries (particularly those which require the storing and manipulation of large amounts of personal data), not having this qualification could put you at a significant disadvantage, particularly if you are pursuing public sector contracts or larger private sector work.

• Restricting and empowering your employees

Your employees are both a liability and your first line of defence against a cyber-attack. Let’s start with what you shouldn’t let them do.

Do not allow all of your employees to see all of the data that you collect and process. By giving access to this data to more people, you are increasing the risk of having a security breach.

Additionally, there is no point in investing in a firewall to keep outside hackers away if you don’t train your staff on the importance of cybersecurity and the danger signs to look out for. A technological firewall is important but, arguably, your human firewall is of even greater significance.

By properly training your employees, you can rely on them much more to deal with any cyber threats that may come up. Having multiple people who know what to look out for and who to report it to is better than concentrating the knowledge in just a few members of staff.

We can help

We’re accountants and not cyber security experts so we’re not the people you need to come to for advice on this subject. However, as your accountants, we need you to know that this is a clear and present threat to your business and every other business.

For advice and support on running your business, please call us today on 01606 333 900 or email hello@burtonbeavan.co.uk.