Costs due to cybercrimes will reach $6 trillion by 2021.
Cybersecurity:
Finding Your
Weak Links
Whether simple check fraud or
sophisticated cyberattack, financial crimes
continue to plague businesses, causing
financial losses, disrupted services, and
headaches. Identifying your company’s
areas of vulnerability can help mitigate
cyber risk and keep your assets secure.
Despite trillions of dollars spent in cybersecurity
over the years, companies are still exposed to
financial cyberattacks. As banks and large corporations become more sophisticated
in their security efforts, fraudsters are taking advantage of smaller companies with
fewer resources.
While the Internet of Things (IoT) allows criminals more access points to your
financial information, your weakest link is most likely a human. Exploiting human
nature to manipulate fraudulent transactions—also known as social engineering—
is a tactic commonly used by criminals. Some thieves can hack into email accounts
and impersonate a legitimate person to initiate transactions. In some cases, the
fraudster will include bits of company news gathered from press releases to lend
credibility and gain trust. The criminal can then impersonate you to appeal directly
to your banker for a wire transfer. In another scenario, the email may appear to
come from you to your bookkeeper ordering an urgent transaction, or it might look
like it’s from your supplier to your accounts payable clerk with a change of address
for payment.
As criminals become craftier at finding your weakest links, you can mitigate the
risks by following our tips.
Practice sound
bookkeeping.
Reconcile bank state-
ments monthly and
review your online
activity several times a
week. The sooner you
alert your banker to a
problem, the more time
there is to remedy it
satisfactorily.
Protect yourself. Prepare your team.
Consider offsetting costs
related to cyber-related
breaches with Cyber Risk
Insurance, a relatively inex-
pensive policy to protect
your assets and data. Also,
take advantage of any bank
services available to you, such
as online banking or transac-
tion verification systems. Layer authority so
that every transaction
requires dual controls
to complete. Train your
staff to scrutinize all
emails and be wary of
ones that have a tone of
urgency or use language
out of the ordinary for
the sender.
Contact your relationship manager today at 855.274.2800 to discuss ways of reducing
financial threats, including Sterling National Bank’s own transaction verification service
Positive Pay.
MEET OUR EXPERTS
LYNN BAGLIEBTER ,
Executive Vice President,
Westchester Market President
and JASON VAZQUEZ ,
Deputy Chief Risk Officer
weigh in on cybersecurity.
THE TRUTH
About Cyber Safety
Think your cyber
risk is too high and
you should avoid
electronic transactions
altogether? Think
again. Whether
someone steals a blank
check or duplicates
one using design
software, check fraud
still reigns as the most
prevalent form of
financial crime.
RANKED BY FORBES’ 2017 “AMERICA’S 100 BEST BANKS” // CONNECT STRATEGY SPRING 2017 // SNB.COM | 21