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What is CEO fraud and what can we do to avoid it?
CEO fraud reputedly cost companies a whopping $1.1bn in 2018 and has been increasing steadily ever since. Impacting any size of company from micro to enterprise it is essential to understand how the scam works to protect your company and employees from it.
Firstly, what is it?
CEO fraud is when scammers impersonate a company executive making urgent and sometimes confidential requests of a member of staff within the company. Their motivation is usually financial, but we have seen rare instances where confidential data has been requested.
How can I educate my team on cyber security?
“Why did I get infected? I have an antivirus” is quite a common question and a good one. Whoever named the most common method of infection “Trojan Horse” certainly knew their history; and for the few who haven’t heard the story or watched the movie; a seemingly impregnable and well defended city was broken by exploiting the trust, ignorance and superstition of otherwise sophisticated people.
Should I be concerned about cyber security and where can I start?
The threat of cyber crime is a very real one. However, there is a big difference between being sufficiently concerned that you take action and being so terrified that you behave irrationally or do nothing at all.
The problem with fear is that it sometimes drives the wrong behaviour. Faced with a predator, our instinct can be flight rather than fight. Cyber crime is not a challenge from which to run away or bury our heads in the sand and hope the aggressor picks on someone else.
We all know what bank robbers and burglars do. Understanding their common tools and techniques helps us to design appropriate defence mechanisms. Cyber crime is no different. Recognising the different tricks of the trade empowers us to implement the cyber equivalent of locking the door or fitting an alarm.
How many of the following 8 common tactics employed by cyber criminals have you heard of?
What constitutes a good password and why it is important to have one?
Quite simply; your password is the key to your IT castle. The walls you carefully build around your business data are of little value if the front door lock is easily picked. The idea that passwords should be long and complex is one of IT industry’s sacred cows, and yet many users stubbornly stick to passwords such as 12345, Password1 or Jimmy1970; which often takes less time to crack than to type them. The question “So, what constitutes a good password?” is a common one.
Why are top managers often the targets of cyber criminals?
As top managers of SMEs, we expect and demand access to all data within our company. While we may consider restrictions upon our staff reasonable and sensible, these surely don’t apply to us? Of course, we need them; finance, operations, sales and marketing are the very pillars of our company, and we need access to every document and every record in every area.