It’s in the headlines. We talk about it
all the time here at Rea. You guessed
it – cybersecurity. Criminals are getting
smarter, more savvy. And businesses are
becoming more and more vulnerable to
damaging cyberattacks. A newer, devi-
ous method criminals are employing is
what is known as “CEO Fraud” or busi-
ness email compromise. According to
KnowBe4, “CEO Fraud is a scam in which
cybercriminals spoof company email ac-
counts and impersonate executives to
try and fool an employee in accounting
or HR into executing unauthorized wire
transfers, or sending out confidential tax
information.” The FBI estimates that this
method of fraud earned cybercriminals
$3.1 billion between January 2015 and
June 2016 – that's almost $6 million a
day. Furthermore, the FBI estimated that
Here are steps you can take now to keep
your business secure:
TRAIN AND EDUCATE YOUR
EMPLOYEES ABOUT THREATS
ESTABLISH A STRONG FIREWALL
and constantly monitor it.
that can hurt your business,
such as PHONY EMAILS, PHISHING Test, test and test again.
SCAMS OR SUSPICIOUS EMAIL CHECK YOUR DATA BACKUPS
ATTACHMENTS. TO ENSURE EVERYTHING IS THERE.
SET UP STRONG PASSPHRASES DEVELOP STRONG POLICIES
and change them routinely, AND PROCEDURES.
especially after using a
shared public
access device.
For more cybersecurity
tips, download our
e-book Cybercrime:
The Invisible Threat That
Haunts Your Business at
www.reacpa.com/cybercrime.
only 4 percent of these cases are able to
get their money back. Don’t fall victim to
these scams.
By Brian Garland,
CPA, supervisor,
[email protected]
(Dublin office)
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