You should always beware of wire fraud & social engineering. It starts off with cyber criminals hacking into email addresses or finding phone numbers of individuals and businesses. The hacker pretends to be a person of high position, such as your boss, and requests information or money be sent to them.
Types of Social Engineering
There are three main types of social engineering to be aware of:
1.) Business Email Compromise (BEC)/Email Phishing
The predator sends out an email to a specific company or client of the hacked account.
2.) Interactive Voice Response/Phone Phishing (AKA Vishing)
Automated voices replicate a legitimate-sounding person or an actual person that impersonate bankers or someone working in a financial institution. They try to verify that they are real by first calling the prospective victim to get them to transfer the private information.
3.) Fake Invoice
A business is asked to wire funds to pay an invoice to an alternate, fraudulent account via email.
How to Prevent it
- Look into Criminal Fraud Insurance, Cyber Crime Insurance, and Social Engineering coverage.
- Require verbal or emailed request for funds or information to be confirmed in person or via phone.
- Consider two-factor authorization for high-level IT and financial security functions.
- Avoid free web-based email, like Yahoo, Google, or AOL. It is best to create a private company domain.
Crime insurance, beyond just the Social Engineering piece, is a very valuable coverage and recommended for all of our clients to carry. Social engineering has been a growing cyber problem in today’s society. It is one of many cyber crimes that can happen to any individual or business. Contact Troy Insurance to talk about what is the best protection for you.
