Cyber risks and payment fraud are increasingly related and making treasury and finance teams’ work more complex than ever. Protecting your business is now about doubling up cybersecurity defenses with innovative fraud prevention to block the financial effects of cyber fraud.
We’re happy to share our latest white paper on the topic, crafted with the Futurum Group. In this piece learn about the main B2B cyber attack techniques, their impact on finance teams as well as mitigation strategies for finance teams. Download it now!
B2B cyber attack trends
Cyberattacks are increasingly sophisticated, utilizing both tech-driven and social engineering techniques. Here are a few common methods:
- Business Email Compromise: Finance professionals are a primary for BEC In fact, 71% of businesses are targeted by BEC annually.
- Phishing scams: fraudulent emails lead to malware downloads, which expose businesses to data breaches, financial regulation violations, and financial loss (learn here how to spot phishing emails).
- Vishing: this type of voice-based phishing leverages AI to imitate voices, posing significant risks as fraudsters imitate legitimate entities. This form of cybercrime can lead to unauthorized changes in banking details or fraudulent transfers.
The high cost of cyber attacks for finance teams
Cyberattacks often result in considerable direct financial loss for businesses. All companies can be victims, even major ones. In fact, over $100 million was stolen from Facebook and Google between 2013 and 2015. The fraudster, Evaldas Rimasauskas, used well-executed phishing emails and forged email accounts.
Ubiquity Network, another victim, lost roughly $46.7 million in a scam where fraudsters impersonated company officials, leading to multiple wire transfers to overseas accounts.
The rise of AI-powered attacks is a significant threat to businesses and finance teams. Fraud has never been so difficult to detect and prevent.
A first step to protect your business: cybersecurity measures
Finance and treasury teams must adopt a multifaceted approach to counteract cybersecurity threats effectively. The first act is to implement robust barriers against cyber attacks.
Key strategies include implementing advanced cyber defense tools, encouraging cybersecurity leadership, and providing frequent security training for all stakeholders. Encryption of sensitive data, coupled with regular and unpredictable security assessments, will help rectify vulnerabilities.
Proactive measures, like sending mock phishing and vishing messages to staff, can train them to recognize and block real threats.
Blocking the effects of cyber risks with integrated and automated account validation
Despite solid cybersecurity practices, the rising use of AI in cyberattacks means even the strongest defenses may falter.
Therefore it’s imperative for organizations to strengthen their financial and treasury departments with specific fraud detection tools – like Trustpair. These tools should effortlessly integrate with existing technical infrastructures (ERP, TMS, etc) and offer real-time vendor account validation.
Indeed, automated account validation throughout the entire payment chain is the best way to block the financial effects of cyber fraud. Solutions like Trustpair provide detailed assessments of domestic and international vendors, based on external and internal data sources. They raise the alert in case of any anomaly – unknown vendor, suspicious banking details – and block any risky payment. Request a demo to learn more!
