Summer Newsletter Home

 

Important: Security Information You Should Know

As you can imagine, these tough economic times have caused fraud attempts to increase throughout all aspects of business, including payment processes. Billions of dollars will be stolen this year through credit card, check, wire and automated clearing house (ACH) fraud. Businesses cannot afford to believe that they are immune to fraud.

The best offense is a good defense. It’s important to know what services are out there so you can make the best decisions on how to protect your business. Following are some services and tips on how you can stay one step ahead and make your company a “hard target” from the perpetrators out there.

Cyber Security Basics

By now, we all recognize that the internet is a great resource and convenience for businesses. At the same time, it’s created opportunities for a new breed of criminal - the cyber thief. Education and proactive measures are the best defense against an attack on your company’s online security. Here are a few basic dos and don’ts for ensuring Web security:

Web Safety and Security DON’Ts:

• Do not open emails from unknown sources.
• Do not install software from unknown sources or unknown websites.
• Do not write down passwords in common areas.
• Do not click on unknown internet links.
• Do not give out information about security measures.

Web Safety and Security DOs:

• Maintain separate workstations when working with sensitive accounts and critical systems.
• Change passwords often and make them complex.
• Install personal firewalls, enterprise firewalls, and web filtering software, and keep all rules and lists updated.
• Keep security patches current.
• Restrict access to sensitive data.
• Maintain separate user IDs when working with sensitive accounts and critical systems.

Malware Fraud

Through malware, fraudsters have the ability to take control of your computer or monitor your activity without your knowledge—meaning they can potentially steal sensitive information and even money out of your pocket. It occurs—or infects—when a company’s employees either open a fraudulent or SPAM email, browse an infected website, download files via peer-to-peer file sharing, or “catch it” from other infected computers within the company’s internal network.

How to Prevent It

Preventing online bank fraud is shared responsibility—both you and your financial institutions should take steps to keep your information and your funds safe. Talk to your business partners to find out if they meet industry security standards, including multi-level authentication.

Here are a few things your business can do to prevent malware from infecting your PCs:

• Keep antivirus and antispyware updated.
• Apply all security patches.
• Use good, complete passwords (different passwords for different things) and protect passwords.
• Encourage employees not to use work computers for risky or non-work applications (no installing games or file sharing, limit web use to business sites, don’t access personal email accounts).
• Take indicators and warnings seriously (PC antivirus alerts, locked password without reason, suspicious phone call digging for information, or just that “something wasn’t quite right” feeling).
• Adopt stronger authentication, such as tokens (used by Wintrust Community Banks) or one time passwords.

Payment Process Fraud

We want to remind you that Community Advantage has a variety of services and technologies available to help protect your business accounts.

ACH Debit Block

This service allows you to specify which ACH debits are allowed on your account by company or service entry class. All unauthorized electronic debits will be returned to the originator before posting to your account.

Positive Pay

With this monitoring system, customers will send their issued check files to the bank electronically each time a check is issued. Issued check files will be compared to the check number and dollar amount clearing. Items that match are paid without further inspection, while exceptions are reviewed for encoding errors. Suspect items are reported to the customer via i-BusinessBankingTM for a “pay/no pay” decision.

iBusiness Banking Alerts

Our online banking services allow you to request e-mail alerts when transactions are processed in your account. You can choose to be alerted when any ACH or debit comes through, when your balance goes below a specified minimum, or many other action items. These notifications allow you to verify that the transactions clearing your account are truly authorized.