You cannot go a day without reading of an instance of fraud against a business. Financial security is vital these days as it has become far more complex than someone stealing from a till or forging a signature. Whether you are part of the global market or a small business, you still need to ensure you do everything possible to protect yourself, your business and your reputation.
Basics
If you do not have even the basics in place, then financially, you are immediately a target. First of all, when employing anyone, it is vital to do full background checks. Regardless of whether new staff member Bobby is your second cousin’s next-door neighbor or not, there may be dodgy things in his history that you need to know about and avoid. Ensuring that you receive adequate references for all staff members is vital. Furthermore, it is absolutely imperative that you get all of their necessary personal details to ensure they can be paid properly.
When it comes to your premises, you must make sure that you have an alarm system in place. Consider how many people will know the code or whether it is just senior members of staff. Changing codes periodically is advised to prevent an aggrieved former employee from carrying out a malicious revenge attack or even someone passing the information on to someone unsavory unwittingly.
Online security
Ensuring that your website is secure is a must. Allowing cyber attacks to be carried out by amateurs means that your site must have been ill-constructed to begin with. Perhaps, the build was done by someone who was unsure what they were doing or it was made in a hurry, missing important steps. Cyber attacks by more experienced hackers, however, are often very difficult to prevent. Nevertheless, it is vital to put all possible protection in place. Seek advice from an expert to ensure that it is done efficiently and effectively. Although it may set you back a chunk of money, it is nothing compared to the amount you would have to spend to rectify problems caused by attacks.
Transactions
Consider the way in which you handle money. Most people are keen, nowadays, to do cashless transactions, preferring online transfer. Companies like PayPal allow protected money transfer and this can be useful. However, it does come at a price. A percentage for each transaction will be payable. There are also other options. If you have a great set-up in your company, you may wish to consider having your own online system for customers to pay for goods and services. It is always worth seeking expert advice to get this up and running efficiently. Furthermore, ensure that you have around the clock support available in case of a critical incident with the system. It may seem as though we are focused on protecting the money that you are due to receive. The money you pay to others is just as important and, therefore, having a system in place, which you can trust implicitly, is imperative.
Alternatively, if you deal with customers face to face, you may continue to receive cash payments. If this is the case, it is vital to ensure you have a system in place for storing the money once it leaves the till. If you handle a lot of cash on a daily basis, it is unacceptable to expect the till to hold it all. Having a safe can help, but be careful with how many people have access to it. Additionally, it is imperative to ensure the person who does the banking, whether at the end of the day or week, is safe. People tend to track business routines. For example, if Sandra from accounts does the banking every Friday at 1pm, someone may have realized this. As a result, it is a great idea to vary things. Try banking at a different time each week and possibly have someone accompany the main account holder to add further security and peace of mind.
Although many people believe that checks are on the way out, that is simply not the case. In fact, they continue to be incredibly popular in the United States. Unfortunately, check fraud can be fairly high, but there are measures you can put in place to try to prevent this from causing you problems. MICR check printing can minimize your company’s exposure to this type of fraud. Source Technologies is one such company that you can utilize the services of in this respect.
Staff accounts
Staff ought to be trustworthy. However, this is not always the case. Allowing all staff access to social media accounts, for example, opens up the possibility of them being misused and causing possible major problems for your business. An agitated colleague may take to logging into social media accounts and sabotaging things for you, knowing that many others also have access, lowering their chance of being caught. Likewise, a drunken mistake of posting from the wrong account could have grave consequences. Although it is great to have everyone involved with the promotion of your business, accidents can happen. It is better to be overly cautious.
It is also good practice to get staff members to change passwords to their devices on a regular basis. Employees should be reminded to keep their personal details to themselves and not share with anyone, not even a fellow staff member. If something serious occurred while someone else was logged into their account, it could spell the immediate end to their employment with you. Therefore, it is in their best interests to do go along with your wishes.
Additionally, it may be worth considering whether or not business technological items should be allowed out of the office or not. If they land in the wrong hands, again, this could cause many problems. Tired after a long day at work, it would be easy to leave a laptop on a bus or train seat. If the basics are in place, this would be a significantly lower risk to your company’s security.
