When It Comes to Payments Fraud, Criminals Are Going Big

Thirty percent of chief financial officers are responsible for their organization’s IT departments, but that doesn’t mean finance departments and IT operations are always working hand-in-hand.

This disconnect between departments presents a weakness cybercriminals can exploit, making it important for both IT and finance teams to work together to guard company infrastructure and back-office operations.

This includes things like the interfaces between the front- and back-office workflows and employee devices, as well as teaching employees best practices to fend off cyberattacks.

Threats From Inside and Out

The threat of fraud attacks from inside and outside companies is on the rise, with fraudsters employing a tested arsenal of tools to search for vulnerabilities in systems and processes. These tools include phishing, long one of the most successful forms of cybercrime, which continues to evolve to adapt to countermeasures.

Hackers also use social engineering techniques to trick users into using fraudulent data, getting access to personal information or funds. Meanwhile, cybercriminals are increasingly focusing more on large-scale, complex commercial fraud instead of retail fraud.

Research finds that in the last year:

• 71% of organizations suffered Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks,
• 69% were victims of phishing attacks, and
• 24% were hit with malware.

In addition, 43% of firms reported a security incident in the last 12 months, with 35% saying that BEC/phishing attacks made up more than half the incidents.

A BEC attack is one in which a scammer sends a targeted email, often pretending to be a fellow employee or a company vendor, convincing unsuspecting victims to unwittingly give up banking details.

And then there are man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, in which cybercriminals spoof a business’ email address and send instructions and a fake hyperlink to a victim. Once they have access, the fraudsters can monitor transactions between the company and the victim, manipulate banking details and access login credentials and other personal information.

To learn more about the threats posed by B2B payments fraud, download your copy of The FinTech Risk Management Playbook, a PYMNTS and nsKnox collaboration.