Cyber criminals are targeting the financial accounts of owners and employees of small and medium sized businesses, resulting in significant business disruption and substantial monetary losses due to fraudulent transfers from these accounts.
Cyber criminals will often “phish” for victims using mass emails, pop-up messages that appear on their computers, and/or the use of social networking and internet career sites. For example, cyber criminals often send employees unsolicited emails that:
- Ask for personal or account information;
- Direct the employee to click on a malicious link provided in the email; and/or
- Contain attachments that are infected with malware.
Cyber criminals use various methods to trick employees into opening the attachment or clicking on the link, including:
- Disguising the email to look as though it’s from a legitimate business. Often, these criminals will employ some type of scare tactic to entice the employee to open the email and/or provide account information. For example, cyber criminals have sent emails claiming to be from:
1. UPS (e.g., “There has been a problem with your shipment.”)
2. Financial institutions (e.g., “There is a problem with your banking account.”)
3. Better Business Bureaus (e.g., “A complaint has been filed against you.”)
4. Court systems (e.g., “You have been served a subpoena.”)
- Making the email appear to provide information regarding current events such as natural disasters, major sporting events, and celebrity news to entice people to open emails and click on links.
- Using email addresses or other credentials stolen from company websites or victims, such as relatives, co-workers, friends, or executives and designing an email to look like it is from a trusted source to entice people to open emails and click on links.
The cyber criminal's goal is to get the employee to open the infected attachments or click on the link contained in the email and visit the nefarious website where hidden malware is often downloaded to the employee's computer. This malware allows the fraudster to “see” and track employee's activities across the business’ internal network and on the Internet. This tracking may include visits to your financial institution and use of your online banking credentials used to access accounts (account information, log in, and passwords). Using this information, the fraudster can conduct unauthorized transactions that appear to be a legitimate transaction conducted by the company or employee.
Educate everyone on this type of fraud scheme
- Don’t respond to or open attachments or click on links in unsolicited e-mails. If a message appears to be from your financial institution and requests account information, do not use any of the links provided. Contact the financial institution using the information provided upon account opening to determine if any action is needed. Financial institutions do not send customers e-mails asking for passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information. Similarly, if you receive an email from an apparent legitimate source (such as the IRS, Better Business Bureau, Federal courts, UPS, etc.) contact the sender directly through other means to verify the authenticity. Be very wary of unsolicited or undesired email messages (also known as “spam”) and the links contained in them.
- Be wary of pop-up messages claiming your machine is infected and offering software to scan and fix the problem, as it could actually be malicious software that allows the fraudster to remotely access and control your computer.
- Teach and require best practices for IT security.
Enhance the security of your computer and networks to protect against this fraud
- Minimize the number of, and restrict the functions for, computer workstations and laptops that are used for online banking and payments. A workstation used for online banking should not be used for general web browsing, e-mailing, and social networking. Conduct online banking and payments activity from at least one dedicated computer that is not used for other online activity.
- Do not leave computers with administrative privileges and/or computers with monetary functions unattended. Log/turn off and lock up computers when not in use.
- Use/install and maintain spam filters.
- Install and maintain real-time anti-virus and anti-spyware desktop firewall and malware detection and removal software. Use these tools regularly to scan your computer. Allow for automatic updates and scheduled scans.
- Install routers and firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to your computer or network. Change the default passwords on all network devices.
- Install security updates to operating systems and all applications, as they become available. These updates may appear as weekly, monthly, or even daily for zero-day attacks.
- Block pop-ups.
- As recommended by Microsoft for users more concerned about security, many variants of malware can be defeated by using simple configuration settings like enabling Microsoft Windows XP7, Vista8, Data Execution Prevention (DEP), and disabling auto run commands. You may also consider disabling JavaScript in Adobe Reader11. If these settings do not interfere with your normal business functions, it is recommended that these and other product settings be considered to protect against current and new malware for which security patches may not be available.
- Keep operating systems, browsers, and all other software and hardware up-to-date. Make regular backup copies of system files and work files.
- Encrypt sensitive folders with the operating system’s native encryption capabilities. Preferably, use a whole disk encryption solution.
- Do not use public Internet access points (e.g., Internet cafes, public Wi-Fi hotspots (airports), etc.) to access accounts or personal information. If using such an access point, employ a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
If you detect suspicious activity, immediately cease all online activity and remove any computer systems that may be compromised from the network.
- Disconnect the Ethernet cable and/or any other network connections (including wireless connections) to isolate the system from the network and prevent any unauthorized access.
- Make sure your employees know how and to whom to report suspicious activity to within your company and at your financial institution
- Immediately contact your financial institution so that the following actions may be taken:
1. Disable online access to accounts.
2. Change online banking passwords.
3. Open new account(s) as appropriate.
- Request that the financial institution’s agent review all recent transactions and electronic authorizations on the account. If suspicious active transactions are identified, cancel them immediately.
- Ensure that no one has added any new payees, requested an address or phone number change, created any new user accounts, changed access to any existing user accounts, changed existing wire/ACH template profiles, changed PIN numbers or ordered new cards, checks or other account documents be sent to another address.
