Protect Your Business from Fraud Attacks
Business fraud has been on the rise for the past few years with no sign of slowing down. With the digital age that we live in it is as important as ever for businesses, both big and small, to have precautions in place to protect their finances. As technology continues to evolve so do the attacks from cyber criminals. It is becoming more common to hear in the news of a company that has been attacked by things such as Malware, Phishing Scams, Ransomware, etc., and we want you to be able to protect your business. Here are our best five tips for protecting your business from fraud.
- Create Strong Passwords
This can be one of the easiest things you can do to protect your business. According to new recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), you should now use long passphrases wherever applications and websites allow. Essentially, a passphrase is a string of words or other text. The longer the better, as lengthy passphrases are much more difficult for hackers to crack! For added measure, substitute letters with other characters, such as numbers, symbols or upper and lowercase letter combinations. Finally, make sure that everyone has their own login for each system.
- Update Your Computer Programs Regularly
Programmers are constantly working to fix any issues or holes in their programs. Having the latest update can help make sure you don’t have a hole in the security of a program. Even though applications are never able to protect you 100 percent of the time, having them up to date can help keep you and your employees safe.
- Be Careful with Email and Instant Messaging
One of the leading ways that malware winds up on a computer is through someone clicking on a link. You should never click on a link that you were not expecting to receive or when you don’t know where it originated from in an email or instant message.
- Educate Your Employees
Teaching your employees about safe online practices and how to be proactive in preventing attacks can go a long way. By training them on effective ways to prevent fraud, your IT staff will not have to continuously react to bad decisions made by employees. Holding different trainings monthly or quarterly can go a long way in educating your staff.
- Use Positive Pay/ACH Blocks & Filters
These great tools help detect check and ACH fraud. The business uploads to the bank all issued checks and works with the bank to identify approved ACH vendors. If an item comes through that is not on a pre-approved list – and the customer does not request it to be paid – the item is returned to safeguard the business account.
And remember, you can learn more about protecting your business from fraud by speaking to a Peoples commercial banker. Stop by a bank location or call 888.929.9902 to speak to one today.
Peoples State Bank
Peoples State Bank is a community bank headquartered in Wausau, Wisconsin, serving north, central, and southeast Wisconsin from ten full-service banking locations in Marathon, Oneida, Vilas, Waukesha, and Milwaukee Counties, as well as a commercial loan production office in Stevens Point, WI.