Cyber Guard+: Protecting Our Clients Is Our Highest Priority!
At Condominium Associates, our clients are our highest priority. We have introduced a protocol to help better serve our clients and protect their assets. Cyber Guard+ is our daily reconciling program available to all of our association bank accounts with our Accounts Payable. We check to see if there are any withdrawals that we are not aware of or did not go through our invoicing process. No other management company offers this safeguarding approach to protecting your Association's money daily.
Why Cyber Guard+?
Cybercrime affects millions of people daily. In 2018, it cost over 600 billion dollars in theft. Cyber Guard+ is a unique new program that protects our clients from the daily threat of cybercrime.
We understand that the only way to protect our Association's money is to monitor it closely. Therefore, we instituted a procedure for reconciling our clients' operating and reserve accounts every 24-hours, thereby allowing us to check for fraudulent activity.
Unlike personal checking accounts, we know that business accounts do not get 30 days to report fraudulent activity. If fraudulent activity is not monitored daily, the Association could end up paying the price.
By providing Cyber Guard+, we not only help our association board members meet their fiduciary obligations, but we advocate to protect our clients' money. Also, we preserve the volume of their most significant assets, their home, or investment property. Our clients can now have peace of mind knowing that their money is safe.
Taking Protective Measures Against Cybercrime
According to the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), internal control is a process — affected by management and other personnel, and those charged with governance and designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the reliability of financial reporting. Internal control policies and procedures should provide for appropriate segregation of duties to reduce the likelihood that deliberate fraud can occur. It also creates a system that ensures proper authorization and recordation procedures.
Education and proactive measures are the best defense mechanisms against an attack on Cyber Security Basics:
Do – Review your bank accounts daily. Vigilance is the first line of defense.
Do – Maintain separate workstations when working with sensitive accounts and critical systems.
Do – Change passwords often, and use complex passwords.
Do – Install personal firewalls and keep rules updated.
Do Not – Open emails from unknown sources.
Do Not – Install software from unknown sources or unknown websites.
Do Not – Write down passwords in common areas.
Do Not – Click on unknown internet links.
Do Not – Use a generic user ID. If you do and fraud occurs, you will not be able to identify the culprit quickly.
Strong passwords requirements consisting of numbers, letters, and special characters for password configurations, which are hard to predict or hack.
Contact Us Today to Get Cyber Guard+
If any fraudulent transactions are suspected, the Agent will immediately contact the Association's bank. The Agent will file the appropriate reports to ensure the Association's bank's fraud protection is triggered. Contact us today to get this extra protection for your Association!