Business account holders are being warned that cybercrooks are using stolen online credentials to empty out corporate banking accounts lately.
In our fast moving and technologically driven world today no one really has time to monitor a business account 24/7, let alone catch cybercriminals who are targeting small business banking accounts.
Recently a stern warning has been issued from an organization that represents over 15,000 financial institutions about an increasing amount of attacks specifically against small business and small banks. The attacks come about from the theft of online banking credentials that hackers are able to access through the use of malware or keystroke-logging applications.
Note to small business account holders: Guard your loins!
Through a sneaky process, cybercriminals are able to steal online banking credentials and use them to raid or take-over corporate accounts to perform the transfer of funds through electronic payment networks. The company that oversees such transactions, or Automated Clearing House (ACH) initiated transfers, the NACHA (The Electronic Payments Association), have noticed the cyber crooks are targeting small business because of their lack of implementing strong authentication methods. Many small businesses do not have robust systems in place to throw-up a "red flag" in the event of their network being compromised to steal data.
Other instances have been reported where cybercrooks have lured small business to phishing sites to steal their login credentials so that the thief can later access a banking account and basically clean them out. Key-logging and malware applications are also being used and have been found to arrive in the email inbox of small business employees as an attachment.
The cybercooks that are performing these malicious actions are not getting caught because they usually have oversees banking accounts set up to receive the ACH funds. Then, because of the minimal account monitoring done in most small business, the crook's activities go unnoticed until it is too late.
As of now, small business account holders are being warned of such theft and malicious activity. It is best that each person take out time to monitor their accounts and make sure their financial institution is taking the proper precautions to avoid your account being compromised.