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15 Business Protection Tips

1. Do not have the same person who issues checks balance the bank statement.
2. Review your account activity and canceled checks regularly, especially if someone else is reconciling your statements.
3. Make certain your supply of checks, deposit slips and other banking documents are securely locked away. Allow access to these materials to a limited number of employees. When an employee leaves the company, its wise to change the locks. It's also smart to conduct random audits for employees who have access to financial records and documents.
4. Purchase your checks and deposit slips through our approved check vendors to ensure the quality of your check stock and the integrity of your account documents.
5. Rather than manually issuing checks, rely on an electronic payment system like SurePayroll® or PayChex®.
6. Know your bank's depositor's contract and what your liability is for fraud under the Uniform Commercial Code.
7. Keep your shredder humming. Destroy all canceled checks and financial data you no longer need.
8. When and if appropriate, have your employees bonded. This means insuring an employee through a bond company to protect clients from losses caused by that employee.
9. Share information with other businesses regarding suspected fraudulent activity.
10. Carry out all online banking activities from a stand-alone, hardened and completely locked down computer system from which email and web browsing are not possible.
11. Ignore emails appearing to be from a financial institution, government office or other entity requesting your usernames, PINs, passwords or other such sensitive information.
12. Install a dedicated, actively managed firewall to limit the potential of unauthorized access to your network and computers.
13. Create strong passwords with around 10 characters including a combination of mixed case letters, numbers and special characters. Prohibit the use of shared usernames and passwords for online banking systems. Use a different password for each website accessed. And change your passwords every 72 days.
14. Use Spyware detection and elimination programs and keep them up-to-date. The same with virus protection software.
15. Verify use of a secure session (https not http) in the browser for all online banking.

If your company has received or experienced suspicious emails or websites, please let us know by emailing to onlinebanking@chesbank .com or phone 877-436-9032.

If you have any concerns regarding your account(s), contact your local branch or call 800-434-1181.

The new world of identity fraud and cyber theft has a vernacular all its own. From such harmless sounding terms as “spoofing” to the Iliad-inspired “Trojan horse,” familiarizing yourself with the latest tricks of the fraud trade will keep you less vulnerable to such, well, tricks. Learn more at bankrate.com.