Small business bank account holders in the UK are under siege after a spate of cyberattacks have drained their coffers in a major assault.
No one ever wants to wake up one morning to a phone call from your bank or to check your current account and find a nasty shock waiting for you. However, it’s happening more and more – in the US alone, December saw small business owners losing $32.000 according to the National Small Business Association. And no, that’s not $32k across everyone – that’s the average loss.
For a small firm, that could easily be the kiss of death. Hackers just don’t care – they’re out for your cash, and they don’t care who they have to hurt in order to get it. Small firms are a favourite target, as SMEs usually don’t have the wherewithal to have advanced cybersecurity measures in place – or even an IT department, if you’re a sole trader. Cyberattackers will use “social engineering” in order to get your personal details, most often by creating carefully-crafted emails and fake bank login pages that are designed to put you at your ease, trust the source of the email or web page, and then steal your login and password.
Thankfully SMEs are finding more tools are being made available to them to thwart such spoofing attacks. Two-step identification is being offered by banks across the world to add an extra layer of security, and it involves your computer or mobile device being sent a one-time code from your banking institution that must be tapped in, in addition to your password and username. Adding this second step, when available, can help turn a possible disaster to just another online banking transaction.
There are other ways to keep your banking details private and your own. If you do engage in mobile banking – like nearly all of us do – try not to do it in places where you’re using unsecured Wi-Fi. Wirless signals that aren’t locked down by a password are infinitely more hackable than ones that require authentication, so do yourself a favour and don’t use that free Wi-Fi signal in the lobby of that hotel or the bar of that restaurant you’re visiting. Is it a bit less convenient? Yes it is – but so is finding your business bank account completely drained of all its cash!
So do your part to make it harder for cyberscammers to get at your hard-earned cash. Be especially suspicious of emails sent to you with strange links or attachments, keep your mobile phone locked down, and just be paranoid of everything. Just remember: a fool and his money are soon parted.