This week marks International Fraud Awareness Week. Several institutions and companies have joined the initiative and are exercising global efforts to minimise the impact of fraud by promoting anti-fraud awareness and education.
According to John Burcham, a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional, it is also a good time to prepare your business for holiday scam season. “The hustle and bustle of the holidays leaves room for vulnerabilities to sneak in, as employees plan vacation time, new employees are on-boarded, and cybercriminals take advantage of your customers and your business.” He stresses that there’s no better time to examine some of the “more ominous” of these threats, and the practical ways you and your employees can remain vigilant against fraud.
He offers four fraud protection tips in his contribution to international fraud awareness week:
| 1. | Strengthen your Password Policy
Globally only 39 percent of employees admit to regularly changing all default passwords. Many of these passwords are repurposed within accounts and may have been exposed in a previous data breach. |
| 2. | Prepare for arrival of vacation time
The end of the year and holiday time leads to fewer resources on hand, allowing everyday procedures to fall through the cracks. Practicing your Incident Response Plan and implementing security awareness training for seasonal employees is key in defending your business during the busy holiday shopping season. |
| 3. | Protect “Bring Your Own Device to Work”
Increasingly more and more employees are using their own devices at work. This has significantly increased the number of threats to data security, with more than 80% of employees using their personal phones, laptops, and tablets for business. |
| 4. | Put Business Identity Theft on your radar
Criminals may impersonate a business using its name, tax identification number or even the owner’s personally identifiable information. Be aware of this phenomenon and secure your data. |
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