Overview

Learn the approaches that many fraud actors are utilizing to capitalize on organizations’ vulnerabilities and how to mitigate this risk. Aisha Kitchlew, ATB’s senior manager of fraud investigations and cybercrime explores:

• The most common and disruptive frauds
• Cybersecurity basics and how to protect your organization with easy to implement tools and mitigation strategies
• Current fraud statistics in Canada
• What to do if you’ve been a victim of fraud

External fraud risks

For public sector organizations, including municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals, the most common entry point into a network is through phishing emails.

“That is your first line of defense,” Kitchlew says. “Your employees need to be on guard at all times to keep intruders out of your system.”

Mitigation strategies include:

• Creating an internal home page for employees and posting regular updates on issues to look out for.
• Never accepting electronic requests as the only form of confirmation. Confirm email addresses, and always pick up the phone to verify an emailed request. (Make sure the number you’re calling has been validated, too.)
• Using two-factor authentication.
• Updating your software on all devices.
• Downloading verified and trusted apps.
• Familiarizing yourself with the most common types of malware, and how they can impact your organization.
• Always sweeping your devices. Make sure they are scanned at least once every six months or whenever an employee leaves your organization.
• Creating an easy escalation process.
• Communicating how to identify a phishing scam.
• Using web applications, firewalls and intrusion detection prevention systems. Make sure you have the right IT people in the right place, whether it’s in-house or third-party IT security experts.
• “Finally, and I can’t stress it enough, educate and train your employees to be human firewalls,” Kitchlew says. “It’s all about teaching employees to identify malware and detect malicious websites and links. Awareness training should be offered to everyone within your organization who has access to your devices or network.”