How Treasury Navigator® Can Protect Your Business from Fraud

As a business owner or manager, your day-to-day job can range from developing innovative products to retaining knowledgeable employees to forecasting the ebb and flow of the market.

You don’t always have time to think about fraud and security. The Association for Financial Professionals’ Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report indicates that nearly 65 percent of organizations were targets of a payments fraud attack in 2022, with checks and wire transfers being the most impacted types of payment.

With Treasury Navigator, SouthState aims to alleviate the burden of security by providing protection and peace of mind.

Through Treasury Navigator’s unique features, your business’ confidential information is safeguarded against cyberattacks and employee mismanagement.
 

How Does Treasury Navigator® Protect Businesses?

Let’s introduce the Treasury Navigator® platform and how it can help your business. On the surface, it’s a state-of-the-art integrated treasury management system. Begin to dig deeper into the platform’s tools, and you’ll find a wide range of features, including Secure Browser functionality with single sign-on, dual controls, flexible file mapping, mobile banking, and customizable information reporting.

Now that we have the basics, how does Treasury Navigator® provide top-notch security? One key element is the Treasury Navigator® Secure Browser.

The browser is designed as a restricted-use web browser that functions as a secure, convenient gateway to approved websites. This shields you from malware that might be attached to commercially available browsers typically used online.

Other features of the Secure Browser include:

• the lack of address line prevents users from accidentally navigating to a potentially harmful website;
• the software performs self-tests during start up and prevents customer login if tampering, corruption, or infection is detected;
•  and a restricted and controlled destination URL list per user.

Treasury Navigator® also uses one-time passcodes. Before they can submit a payment, users must provide the one-time passcode sent to them on an approved device.

For those that occasionally conduct business in a public setting, Treasury Navigator® utilizes a virtual keyboard during the user log-in process. Characters entered using the virtual keyboard display for only one second before being hidden by an asterisk in order to prevent “shoulder surfing.”

If you’re on the go and prefer to use a mobile device, Treasury Navigator® has its own iOS and Android mobile applications for phone and tablet. Users must confirm their identity by entering credentials provided by SouthState. Once confirmed, users create a PIN that is used for subsequent logins. Logins and payments performed on the app are audited in the same way as tasks performed via the secure browser.

Do you have a new or temporary employee who shouldn’t have unfettered access yet? Through the platform, managers can restrict permissions, set transaction limits, and assign payment administrative permissions.

Users can also choose from 29 different notifications that will alert them of balance changes above or below their customized threshold. Subscriptions allow a user to enroll to receive notifications when specific events have occurred or are about to occur which may affect the user. These alerts could signal that a fraudulent transaction has occurred.
 

What Should I Do if There is Fraud or Loss?

You will take every measure to prevent fraud – and your banker will help, too – but fraud may still occur. Your business email could be spoofed or hacked. Checks payable to your business or a vendor could be lost. What are your next steps to recover these losses?

The Federal Trade Commission recommends a few key steps in the event your business email is compromised:

• If you have the budget, bring in an independent forensic investigator to help you determine the source and scope of the breach.
• Take all affected equipment offline immediately to prevent further loss, but don’t turn any machines off until the forensic experts arrive.
• Have employees update their passwords in case the hacker stole credentials.
• Determine any remaining weak security spots. Was encryption enabled when the breach happened? Who had access to the compromised data? Do you need to change the level of access for any users?
• Verify who was compromised. If you can determine affected customers, contact those people. Remind them not to share any personal information through email or text.

If your business experiences fraud, you’ll need to file a police report and provide the facts and circumstances surrounding the loss. You will also need to notify your banker immediately so they can take action to contain the incident.