Protecting SMBs

CF: As far as SMBs, are there ways that cybersecurity providers can help them to not become victims during tax season?

GM: This applies to tax season, but it also goes above and beyond that. One of the things I’ve been really passionate about for several years now is security awareness training. It’s important that we know that this is the way you’re supposed to handle important financial information. Cybersecurity is becoming the same in that people need to be educated about the types of risks that they face.

We see a lot of business email compromise (BEC) types of attacks where somebody pretends to be somebody they’re not and tricks somebody. So you can have just simple protocols in place to say, if we’re going to be transferring money, I need to talk to you on the phone or FaceTime with you. If I got an email, let me call you. If I got a text message, let’s get on the phone. Getting on the phone a great way to thwart a lot of these things. There are a lot of great training platforms out there that provide the ability to educate your workforce and yourself about the the types of scams that are ongoing.