Cyberthieves target SMB bank accounts

Cybercriminals have a new method to their madness. They are targeting the online bank accounts of small and medium sized businesses at unprecedented rates.

A new survey by the Ponemon Institute and Guardian Analytics identified just that problem. The survey results found:

• 55 percent of businesses reported experiencing fraud in the last 12 months, with 58 percent enabled by online banking activities.
• 80 percent of banks failed to catch fraud before funds were transferred out of their institution.
• 26 percent were not compensated for any part of their losses.

"The data is clear: Financial institutions are failing to protect small and medium business assets," Terry Austin, CEO, Guardian Analytics told USA Today. "This is crushing to the SMBs, which are at the heart of our economic recovery."

Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, says banks need to "evolve their definition of reasonable security and proactively invest in process and technology to better protect their online banking customers."

For more on cyber dangers for SMBs:
- see this USA Today article

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