Protect your small business from fraud

How secure are you and your small business from fraud, identity theft, and cybercrime? Here are some tips you can take to better protect your business.

Protect your bank accounts: Keep separate bank and credit card accounts for your personal life and business. If a hacker gets into one account, they can’t get access to the other. Look into proper security for online banking and you and your employees’ credit cards. You should also handle all your bills online instead of via paper. The more paper bills there is, the more likely the banking information can fall into the wrong hands.
Safeguard your computer systems: A firewall and antivirus software can help protect data and fight any breaches. Make sure your employees create strong passphrases, which uses the idea of “length over complexity.” This means that the longer the passphrase, the better. Consider enabling multifactor authentication (MFA) for privileged accounts (i.e., administrators) and for any software that contains sensitive information. You should also consider backing up your data on a daily or weekly basis, storing the information offsite. If the system goes down, you can quickly restore the files.
Do an employee background check: You need to find people not only qualified but who are trustworthy. Conduct a thorough background investigation instead of relying only on references and work history.
Create a secure entry: To keep out unwanted visitors, create a secure entry system. Some key-card systems provide time-stamped records of entries and exits. You can also limit access to specific sensitive areas, keeping you and your business safer.
Educate your staff: Conduct regular training sessions on basic security threats and prevention measures for new hires and seasoned staff. Through training, they will learn the proper policies on use and handling of confidential information including financial data, personnel and customer information.
Insure your business: Purchase an insurance policy that protects you against any losses from crime or fraud.

Consider protection tools from Adirondack Bank

Adirondack Bank has various useful tools with real-time alerts to help you guard against account fraud. They include:

Positive Pay: Adirondack Bank’s Positive Pay service is a proactive banking solution that can prevent your business from becoming a victim of check or ACH fraud. This fraud mitigation tool allows Business Online Banking customers to view checks issued and paid as well as ACH transactions for potential fraud and allows the customer to make timely decisions to return any questionable check or ACH payment.
Manage your cards: Through your ADK on the Go mobile app, control your debit card usage and spending on the go. This convenient service lets you lock and unlock your ADK debit card, set and remove spending limits, restrict transactions, and even schedule alerts!
Notifi: Adirondack Bank’s Online Banking customers can now set up real time alerts for their accounts with Notifi. You choose which alerts you are interested in such as password changes, low balance information, transfer, transaction, and even ATM activity.

Check out our fraud protection section for more information about protecting your business.

The information in this article was obtained from various sources not associated with Adirondack Bank. While we believe it to be reliable and accurate, we do not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information. Adirondack Bank is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the information provided or the content of any third-party sites that might be hyperlinked from this page. The information is not intended to replace manuals, instructions or information provided by a manufacturer or the advice of a qualified professional, or to affect coverage under any applicable insurance policy. These suggestions are not a complete list of every loss control measure. Adirondack Bank makes no guarantees of results from use of this information.

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