Ep. 59 - Defend Yourself Against Business Email Compromise with Greg Markell, President and CEO of Ridge Canada Cyber Solutions

Sep 7, 2020

This episode will help protect your business from losing huge sums of money because of a fake email.  

Here’s The shocking truth about bank fraud on business accounts: Your COMPANY’S business bank account doesn’t enjoy the same protections as a personal bank account! For example, if someone social engineers your payment team to transfer money out of   your business account, the bank is NOT responsible for getting your money back. Many people think CDIC protects you from fraud; it doesn’t. It protects you from bank insolvency, NOT fraud. 

We call this Business Email Compromise, when fraudsters target a company’s payment team impersonating a contractor, supplier, or creditor or even someone in senior management. The email address will APPEAR to closely match a legitimate email or unknowingly an account may have been hacked. The payment team may think the instructions to pay are  real and unfortunately act on it, resulting in the transfer of funds.

Business Email Compromise is big business, expected to reach 6 trillion dollars in 2021.

Defend yourself against BEC by following this list:

• Cancel your debit cards; they are the #1 way bank accounts get compromised.
• Have a dedicated PC  or tablet for online banking and DON’T use that PC for accessing any other websites, e-mail access or social media sites, or for downloading files and applications.
• Carefully scrutinize all  email addresses  with payment instructions and make sure they are from the right person
• Verify payment requests and changes to account details using known contact details.
• Establish other communication channels such as phone calls to verify transactions, and 2Factor
• look out for unusual changes in business practices, for example getting requests from someone who is normally not involved in the payment process; or a vendor asking for an account number to be changed
• Sign up for email alerts from your bank whenever a withdrawal over $100 happens.
• Require YOUR signature for any wire transfers.
• Have your money spread out in multiple accounts to minimize the risk.
• Carry Insurance.

Today’s episode is with Greg Markell, President and CEO of Ridge Canada Cyber Solutions, a company focused on providing insurance solutions for clients’ cyber and privacy needs. Greg is very well versed on the topic of cyber and privacy liability for public and private organizations.

00:00 - 04:32

Barb’s introduction

04:33- 07:38

Meet Greg Markell

07:39 - 17:35

If your employee is tricked in turning over millions of dollars are you covered?

17:36 - 34:17

What does a cyber policy cover? What does a fidelity policy cover?

34:18 - 40:49

What do you need to have in place to qualify for a cyber policy coverage?

40:50 - 42:47

What’s the most important thing Greg has learned?

42:48 - 46:40

Barb’s extro

If you have questions about your IT vulnerabilities, or have any questions, call Barb at 905 542 9759  or visit CDNTechnologies.com.