As Cybersecurity Awareness Month comes to a close, cybersecurity has once again been making headlines. Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming more capable, including accelerating the discovery of security weaknesses that might previously have been expensive or time-consuming to find.
For business owners and individuals who rely on modern technologies, headlines like these can feel overwhelming.
Some of the most effective ways to protect yourself, your business, and your money are surprisingly straightforward. Good security still starts with slowing down, verifying unusual requests, protecting access to your accounts, and creating layers of protection before money or sensitive information can leave your control.
One of the biggest challenges created by AI is that impersonation can become much more convincing.
An email may appear to come from someone you know. A text may look legitimate. A caller may claim to be a bank employee, vendor, coworker, family member, or company executive. As technology improves, we can't rely solely on whether something looks or sounds legitimate.
Instead, verify the request through a channel you already trust.
This is particularly important when someone:
If you receive a questionable email, don't simply reply to it. If a caller asks for sensitive information, don't rely on the number they give you. Contact the individual or organization independently using contact information you already know and trust.
For businesses, sometimes the best security tool is simply picking up the phone or walking down the hall and asking, "Did you really request this?"
Security should also be something we talk about and in the spirit of Security Awareness Month let’s all commit to sharing what we know!
Encourage employees to question unusual requests and give them permission to slow a process down if something doesn't look right. An employee shouldn't worry about inconveniencing a manager, customer, or vendor by verifying an unusual request.
That brief interruption is far better than discovering afterward that a fraudulent transaction was approved because nobody wanted to ask another question.
Share suspicious emails and attempted scams with your employees. Talk about what your team should do when something unusual happens. Make verification part of your normal business culture rather than something you only discuss after an incident.
We're accustomed to technology making everything faster and easier. But when it comes to moving money, a little friction can be a very good thing.
For a small business, one employee shouldn't necessarily be able to receive an emailed request, change payment instructions, initiate a transaction, and approve it without another person becoming involved.
Consider controls such as:
Think about a familiar scenario.
A vendor sends an email saying, "We've changed banks. Please send future payments to this new account."
It might be completely legitimate.
But instead of immediately making the change, your process could require someone to call a known contact at the vendor using a telephone number already on file. A second employee could then review and approve the payment before it is released.
Those extra steps aren't inefficiency. They're protection.
You don't need to own a business to benefit from the same principles.
Pay attention to alerts from your financial accounts. Use strong authentication where available. Never provide a password or one-time security code simply because someone calls, emails, or texts asking for it. Be suspicious of unexpected requests to move money, purchase gift cards, send cryptocurrency, or provide personal or financial information.
And don't let urgency make the decision for you.
If something seems unusual, stop and independently contact the person, business, or financial institution involved.
Slow down. Ask questions. Verify unusual requests. Protect your accounts. Use multiple layers of security. And pay attention to your money.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month may be ending, but those are habits worth practicing throughout the year.
Every business is different, and the right combination of banking services, controls, and processes should fit the way your organization operates.
Reach out to us to talk about solutions tailored to your business and ways to strengthen the controls around your accounts and payment processes. We can also arrange a complimentary security awareness training session for your business and employees, with practical examples and information they can use both at work and at home.
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