Anatomy of a cyber crime – (a.k.a.

Since 2016, I’ve said it many times…cyber security is the business continuity issue of our time. A dramatic statement, I know, but I’ve seen client companies completely shut down only to recover when they found a good backup from which to restore. That’s why I was humbled when this message while processing payroll for our small business on November 11th of last year informing me that an employee’s direct deposit account had previously been associated with fraud.

I’m Brian Terrell, Managing Partner of BTerrell Group.

This warning message saved our company thousands of dollars, and here’s how it happened. It begins with this email from the employee to our HR Manager requesting a change to their direct deposit account. HR responds with instructions on how to make the change. The employee tries, says that doesn’t work for me, and asks HR to make the change for her. And then HR sends the new routing and account number directly to me.

It goes without saying we made mistakes along the way which I hope will be helpful to my friends on LinkedIn, and the software saving the day is provided by Proliant Payroll Services. It doesn’t benefit us, but if you want to learn more about Proliant you may do so by going to www.proliant.com.

In the meantime, assume the bad guys are reading your email and look for service providers who watch your back.