MAGNOLIA

CLIPPING SERVICE
(601) 856-0911 I (205) 75R-8610
WOODVILLE REPUBLICAN

WOODVILLE, MS

CirculatIOn =2550
WEEKLY
05/13/2010

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Five Steps to Protect
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it Il10Itl easy and convenient to almunt,

ma:oage business finances, but 4. Update virus protection
it also prcNides an opportunit;y and securit;y software. Ensure
fur hackers to gain access to that all anti-spyware, anti-mal­
business accounts with the ware, and security software
goal of making unauthorized and mechanisms are robust
money transfers. The Better and up-to-date on computers
Business Bureau (BMfserv­ used for online banking and
ing Missis~ippi~mmends payments. Implement a
small business owners imple­ process to periodically ronfirm
ment a few simple steps to they remain up-to-date.
keep their financial infonna­ 5. Reroncile almunts daily.
tion and transactions secure Monitor and reroncile almunts
when banking online. dally against expected credits
According to Visa Inc., 85 and withdrawals. If you see
perrent of data breaches oo:ur any kind ofunexpected actiyity
at the small business level. on your acrount, notifY your fi­
Symantec Corporation reports nancial institution immediate­
that 33 perrent of small busi­ Jy.
nesses laCk even simple an­ Small business owners can
tivirus protection_ get additional advice and tips
"Small business owners on imprcNing data securit;y at
might fEel that they are flying v.'Ww.bbb.orgfdata~
under the radar ofdata thieves
and hackers, but they are actu­
ally in the crosshairs," said Bill
Moak, President/CEO of the
Mississippi BBB, 'That's why
we partnered with leading se­
curity experts to show .small
business owners that imple­
menting a strong data securit;y
s~ doesrrt have to take a
lot oftime or resouJ:'I.l'lS."
The BBB offurs the fuIlow­
ing advice for small business
owners to make online bank­
ingtransactions secure:
1. Initiate a dual control
payment process. Ensure that
all payments are initiated fi:um
your bank almunts only after
the authorization of two em­
ployees. One employee can au­
thorize the creation of the pay­
ment file and another will be
rolpoIlsible fur authorizing the
release of the:file. This pruress
should be in place reganlless of
the t;ype ofpayment being initi­
ated (inc!uding cheCks, wire
transfers, fund transfers, pay­
roll files,ACH payments).
2, Have dedicated worksta­
tions. Restrict the use of cer­
tain workstations and laptops
solely fur online banking and
payments, if possibJe_ Try to
avoid using a romputer fur on­
line banking as well as for Web
browsing or social networking,
3. Use robust authentica­
tionmethods and vendors,
Make sure your financial
service providers allow for
"multi-fttctor authentication."
This means that you need
more than just a user name