Have you been warned about the February Fraud-Spree?

Many small businesses are unaware of the high levels of fraud they may be faced with in February, does this include you?

Small businesses have been warned to be more aware in February as high levels of fraud are predicted each year. After the Christmas period, cases of fraud could increase by up to 80% in February as hackers are keen to target customer data which has been obtained during the busy period. Fraud usually declines around Christmas as hackers would wait for customer information to be present after the busy online sales. Some accounts are even targeted year on year, and this sometimes continues without being noticed.

Small businesses are usually the main target for hackers and nearly all data breaches happen online rather than when the sale is being made. Data breaches can cause damaging effects on your internal system so it is vital for all small business owners to protect their organisation in the relevant ways.

Fraud checklist:

• Have you changed all passwords so they are difficult to guess?
• Hosting your own payment page may be less secure, make sure this is hosted by a third party.
• Firewalls should be tested every 3 months, or get an external support company to do this for you.
• Are all card data details securely destroyed?
• Avoid storing the three digits ‘CVC’ number on the back of your card.

If you have any further questions in regards to data security then please speak to our team today.