Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated and bolder by the minute.  At First National Bank of Moose Lake we understand the challenges you face in protecting the financial assets of your business.  Here are some tips to help:

• Conduct a periodic risk assessment of all electronic banking activities and adjust accordingly. Risk assessments should include, at a minimum, occurrence of threats, actual incidents of fraud, changes in company staffing that affect user access, and enhancements in security made by the financial institution.
• Institute a standard for classifying all information. Is it confidential, private, unclassified, etc., and a means to identify which employees, or group of employees, have access to this information.
• Determine what websites need to be made available to employees in order to conduct business activities. Consider blocking access to file sharing, social media, and personal email sites.
• Ascertain who needs access to your banking systems and services and make sure the removal of access to those services is part of your employee exit process.
• Dedicate a computer to be used solely for all online banking activities. If that is not feasible, restrict the use of personal web browsing, emailing, and social networking on any computer used for online banking activities. Install and update your anti-virus and anti-spyware software frequently.
• Keep your computer’s operating system up to date.
• Keep your web browser software up to date by installing the most recent version.
• Install a firewall.
• If you have any doubts about the authenticity of an email be sure to delete the suspicious emails from your mailbox. If you do not recognize the sender of an email or have any doubts about the authenticity of an email, do not respond and delete it immediately. Do not open the email or click on links or attachments, especially if they tell you the problem is urgent or the attached file ends in “.exe”.
• Always use secure passwords. A secure password consists of upper- and lowercase letters and numbers.
• Monitor your account activity closely and watch for unusual activity. You can use First National Bank of Moose Lake’s Online Banking to monitor account balances, 24/7.
• Consider disabling CD, DVD, and USB drives on all computers where these drives are not needed.
• Consider using programs that scan emails for malicious content.
• Do not allow your employees to download unauthorized software or programs.
• Institute a system of dual controls for critical functions so that no single individual is solely authorized to take action without adequate checks and balances

Related Insights

Visit the Federal Communications Commission and read Cybersecurity for Small Business:

Visit the Federal Trade Commission FTC website and review their section on Protecting Small Businesses: