Watch out for cyber fraud

Cyber fraud is rampant in society. It is not uncommon to pay a supplier invoice from electronic banking without putting a lot of thought into the fact that some details, such as the bank account number has changed.

It is not uncommon to pay a supplier invoice and think nothing of it until your supplier calls requesting payment of that invoice.

This causes confusion to the company because you have just paid the invoice but then the supplier tells you they didn’t change their bank account details. This is now a classic case of cyber fraud. You may have like so many other Australian businesses fallen victim to a cybercrime, it is so common the Australian Cyber Security Centre reports they receive one report of cyber crime every 10 minutes. A change of bank account details on a supplier invoice is one of the more common cyber losses, often called social engineering or financial fraud claims. In this example an individual changed the bank account details of a supplier without phoning the supplier first contributed to the loss, however, there are also losses with no known employee involvement, such as losses arising: • Where the correspondence between your business and the supplier are intercepted by the ‘hacker’, resulting in the payment details of an invoice being changed. • Where the invoice looks like it is coming from the correct supplier, however, their email has been compromised or spoofed; meaning

‘the hacker’ has gained access to the supplier email account and sending out unauthorised emails, often intercepting the replying so the supplier does not even know it is happening until it is too late. • Where entire systems are ‘hacked’, unable to be used or accessed and your data/records are held for ransom. If you are lucky to be one of the few companies yet to experience a cyber claim, you should ask yourself am I next? According to the Chubb Cyber IndexSM claims data, there’s been a 1,215% increase in the number of commercial cyber insurance claims over the past 10 years and there is no evidence of this trend slowing down. We hear businesses so often tell us it will never happen to them. Until it does.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (www.cyber.gov.au) has practical steps you can take to protect your business from Cyber threats. You can also look to mitigate your Cyber rights through insurance — talk to your insurance broker today about a Cyber policy that is right for your business.

For more information contact HRIA Insurance on 02 9998 2255