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

Business ID Theft (Part 1): SMBs Have Identities Too

By Laura Bruck in Business Protection 0 Comment

Business Identity Theft 101 

Identity theft comes in all shapes and sizes. Despite the effort we put into protecting our financial accounts, Social Security numbers and online login credentials, we’ve seen identity crimes continue to grow.

We know it’s important to protect our personal identities. But when was the last time you thought about protecting your small business’ identity?

Like people, businesses can also fall victim to identity theft. Criminals take on a business’ identity to target its funds, file fraudulent tax returns, take out loans, apply for lines of credit and accumulate debt under the company’s name. Continue reading