Small Business Security (Pt. 1): Employee Security Awareness

By Eugene Bekker in Business Protection 0 Comment

Employees & Small Business Security 

Let’s face it: without the proper employee security awareness and training put in place, your employees won’t be able to recognize and address the risks that are actively targeting your business. 

Between good password habits, data breaches and business email phishing scams, you have a lot to consider when it comes to your business security. Your employees’ security habits in the office (or lack thereof) can significantly impact your overall business security. 

Follow us through Part 1 of our Small Business Security series where we discuss three major security risks to your small business, and how your employees can make or break your business’ security.  Continue reading

Pro V. Con: BYOD Security Challenges & Concerns

By Eugene Bekker in Business Protection 0 Comment

Employees and Personal Devices 

Most employees will bring at least one type of smart device – most likely a smartphone – into the office. In fact, 77 percent of Americans use smartphones, which is why business owners have begun putting Bring Your Own Device, or “BYOD” policies in place.  

BYOD simply means that your business allows employees to bring their personal devices, like laptops and mobile devices, into the workplace. These policies vary depending on your business type, the type of information you store, your employees’ access to that sensitive information and your company’s size and budget. 

No matter what type of business you run, it’s important to consider your company’s BYOD security challenges despite the added benefits to productivity and your bottom line. Join us as we discuss BYOD, how to choose the right program for your business, and ways to improve existing BYOD programs you already have in place.  Continue reading

Business Email Compromise: Infographic

By John Burcham in Business Protection 0 Comment

Business Email Compromise 

It’s important that your employees know how to recognize phishing emails. However, business email compromise (BEC) scams are more sophisticated than traditional phishing attacks — and much harder to detect.

Unlike typical phishing emails that are characterized by unknown senders, grammar and spelling mistakes, and suspicious links and attachments, BEC emails appear to come from familiar entities. 

The most common BEC scams are ones that impersonate a company’s CEO or financial adviser to request fake wire transfers. Your business could suffer major financial losses if it fell victim to a BEC attack. Most often, BEC scams are not discovered until it’s too late. As a result, lost funds resulting from the scams are nearly impossible to recover.   Continue reading

Business ID Theft (Part 2): Public Info, Easy Access

By Laura Bruck in Business Protection 2 Comments

Business ID Theft 101: Part 2 

In Part 1 of our Business ID Theft series, we looked at how business identity theft is much like personal identity theft. Let’s review some key points:

  • Business identity theft and data breaches are not the same. Business identity theft requires the “actual impersonation of the business itself.”
  • Stealing your business’ identity allows criminals to open new lines of credit, bank accounts, apply for loans and make fraudulent purchases in your business’ name.
  • Identity thieves keep coming up with ways around existing protective measures put in place, as well as exploit loopholes in filing processes to carry out their crimes.
  • Business identity theft can ultimately lead to business failure. A study found that 60 percent of victims go out of business within one year.

Now that we understand what business identity theft is, let’s talk about how criminals go about committing it. This type of crime targets certain companies for a variety of reasons. However, the goal for any identity thief is to misuse the information — while remaining undetected — for as long as possible. Thus, criminals have come up with ways to outsmart existing systems in place, as well as create new routes to a business’ sensitive information.

Let’s explore four ways that criminals can obtain your business’ sensitive information and victimize you and your business through business identity theft:

Continue reading