There is a double-edged sword for small businesses: online banking. It offers convenience, but it can make you more vulnerable to theft. And not every business person can afford to hire IT folks to guide him or her through the maze of protective software.
Cybercriminals have a myriad of tools at their disposal to hack into your business accounts and steal sensitive information. Phishing is a common scam that uses e-mails that look like the real thing to lead Internet users to Web sites where they are asked to enter sensitive information such as user names, passwords, or credit card or bank account numbers. Once a criminal has the information he needs, he can then bleed a business owner dry, emptying business and personal accounts. Criminals can also sell your sensitive information online to anyone with the best offer.
There are some practices that business owners should adopt to secure online banking.
• Train your employees to never trust e-mails requesting personal information, such as user names or passwords. If there is no one in your office qualified to provide this type of training, find an IT professional to educate your employees.
• Ensure that your business systems, including computers, file and mail servers, are protected by trustworthy security software.
• Designate one computer to use as your business' online account machine. This machine should be used for online banking and not for other activities such as e-mailing, web browsing or file sharing.
• Discuss with your bank the type of security they have in place, and as for recommendations as to what will work best in your office as a complement. Familiarize yourself with the protection and processes the bank's security provides to businesses in the event of a loss.
You should also familiarize yourself with the various ways criminals can do harm to your online efforts.
• Programs that perform malicious actions but have no replication abilities are called trojans. These may arrive as harmless files or applications, but they actually have malicious intent written into their code. Banking trojans are specifically designed to gain control and compromise online accounts.
• Phishing is a form of identity theft in which a scammer uses a seemingly authentic e-mail to trick recipients into providing sensitive information.
• Site spoofing involves Web sites that look and appear professionally designed and legitimate. They are designed to get the recipient to submit personal information such as credit card and bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and birth dates.
Once you've learned the ling and what not to do, you'll be able to breathe easier as you conduct business online.