MAGNOLIA

CLIPPING SERVICE

(601) 856-0911 I (205) 758-8610

HA n/ESBURG AMERICAN
H.A.TT/ES8URG, MS

Circulation = 26509

DAILY
07/30/2010
1/11111111111111111111111111111111 III

• Have dedicated work­

stations.Restrict the use of
certain workstations and
BILLMOAK laptops splely for online
banking and payments, if
, possible. Try to avoid using
Protectyour
a computer for online
banking as well as for Web
business in
browsing or social net­
working.
onl~R£Wanking • Use robust authentica­
tion methods and vendors.
Make sure your financial
NLINE BANKING

O
service providers allow for
. HAS made it more . "multi-factor authentica­
easy and conven­ tion. "
ient to manage business fi­ This means that you
nances, but it also provides need more than just a user
an opportunity for hackers name and password to ac­
to gain access to business cess your account.
accounts with the.goal of • Update virus protec­
making unauthorized tion and security software.
money transfers. Ensure that all anti-spy­
The Better BusinessBu­ ware, anti-malware, and
'reau serving M"'iSSissippi . security software and
recommend.s small busi­ mechanisms are robust and
ness owners implement a up-to-date on computers
few simple steps to keep used for online banking
their financial information and payments. Implement
and transactions secure a process to periodically
when banking online. confirm they remain up­
According to Visa Inc., to-date.
85 percent of data breaches • Reconcile accounts
occur at the small business daily. Monitor and recon­
level. cile accounts daily against
Symaritec Corp reports expected credits and with­
that 33 percent of small drawals.
businesses lack even simple If you see any kind of

antivirus protection. un.expected ·activity on

Small business owners your account, notify your

might feel that they are financial institution im­

flying under the radar of .mediately. .

data thieves and hackers, Small business owners
but they are actually in the can ge~additional advice
crosshairs. and .tips onirnproving data
That's why we partnered secutity at www.bbb.org /
with leading security ex­ data-security.
perts to show small busi­
ness owners that imple­ Bill Moak is president of the
menting a strong data se­ Better Business Bureau of
curity strategy doesn't have MisSissippi. E-mail him at
to take .a lot of time or re­ www.bbbms.org.
sourceS.
The BBB offers the fol­
lowing advice for small
business owners to make
online banking transac"
tions secure:
• Initiate a dual control
payment process. Ensure
that all payments are initi­
ated from your bank ac­
counts only after the au­
thorization of two employ­
ees. .
One employee can au ­
thorize the creation of the
payment file and another
will be responsible for au­
thorizing the release of the
file. .
.This process should be in
place regardless of the type
of payment being initiated
(including checks, wire
transfers, fund transfers,
payroil files, ACH pay­
ments) .