It’s Tuesday morning after a long weekend, the bookkeeper
comes in a little late but hits the books right away. She comes into your
office and asks you about a series of wire transfers you made over the holiday
weekend to new employees who apparently live overseas. And then your heart
sinks. Because you have heard about how small business bank accounts are
hacked, but didn’t think it would happen to you.
Cybercrime
is happening to the tune of around 1 billion dollars a year. Small business
bank accounts are being hacked and the banks are pointing the finger at their
customers. Why? Because in many cases there are no actual data breaches
at the banks. Cybercrime is
often taking place right in the small businesses offices on their own PCs.
Blooomberg reports “Organized criminal gangs, operating mostly out of Eastern
Europe, target small companies, school districts and local governments that
maintain fat commercial bank accounts protected by rudimentary security
measures at community or regional banks. The accounts typically aren’t covered
by insurance as individual accounts are.”
However one bank
fought back and won. iovation reports “one Michigan judge recently decided in
favor of Comerica Bank customers, holding the bank responsible for
approximately $560,000 out of a total of nearly $2 million in unrecovered
losses. A copy of the bench decision is
available from Pierce Atwood LLP, and the firm also outlines significant
highlights and observations regarding this cybercrime case.
Small businesses are
under siege today and must know their bank accounts are being targeted by cyber-thieves. One
solution is certainly a secure IT infrastructure and another, in some cases,
may be moving to a bigger bank. Some smaller banks simply can’t handle the loss
whereas bigger banks may have the resources to absorb them. If you bank with a
small bank now is the time for a heart to heart talk.