Business cyber fraud: build resilience into financial workflows

Understand operational exposure

Payment teams, purchasing staff, IT administrators and executives all encounter requests that can be manipulated. An attacker may use ordinary business details to make an exceptional instruction appear routine.

A supplier account change can be fraudulently introduced into an otherwise legitimate invoice exchange. Confirm such changes through previously established channels.

Avoid single-person verification of high-impact actions

Two-person approval is especially helpful when a transaction has significant consequences. The method should still work when a manager is unavailable.

Clear coordination between finance, IT and management ensures that a suspicious payment or compromised account can be escalated immediately.

Practical checks

• Maintain a verified list of supplier contacts
• Separate beneficiary creation from payment approval
• Review privileges and delegated access
• Document an escalation route for suspicious instructions

Coordinate the response across departments

Short exercises based on real workflows show whether a procedure is understood in practice. The goal is to improve the process, not punish a person for reporting a mistake.

Vigifraude draws on Alain Stevens’s experience in digital information and technical risk since 1999 to connect organisational controls with practical IT assistance.

Related resources

Build a suitable control

Security becomes more reliable when the same rules apply during routine periods and exceptional situations.

For a technical question, software project or training request, describe the need without sending credentials or unnecessary personal data.