Staying safe online: How to keep your business secure from cybercrime

As the number of businesses using the worldwide web and social media to connect with customers grows, so does the risk of cybercrime. Mia Garlick, Director of Policy for Meta Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands explains how Meta are helping their users – businesses and customers alike – stay safe online.

Over the past two years, we know Australians have spent more time online to connect with family and friends, seek entertainment, and run their businesses. Unfortunately, scammers know this too and they have become even more sophisticated.

Scams can happen anywhere and any time: by phone, text, or online. Scammers present an ongoing challenge in any environment and use tactics like adapting to real-time events – from tax time, to the COVID-19 pandemic, or elections – and are very effective at imitating real organisations.

How Meta is keeping users safe

Meta (as the company that provides apps such as Facebook and Instagram) is committed to ensuring positive and safe experiences for users and small businesses across our platforms.

Over 200 million businesses connect with their customers through Meta, and we invest significantly in both technology and people to help detect and remove scams or suspicious behaviour. For example, between January and March 2022 we removed 1.6 billion fake accounts, which could be a vehicle for scam behaviour, and 99.7 per cent of these were detected proactively.

We have also invested in a number of public awareness campaigns to increase users’ ability to identify and report scams. This month, we are launching a new awareness campaign with the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, and IDCARE, a national identity and cyber support service.

Hacker sitting in the dark surrounded by computer screens

This campaign looks specifically at how small businesses can build trust with their customers, and how customers can identify common small business scams, which includes:

Small businesses – how to be a responsible seller and build consumer trust

Provide accurate and complete information about your business and products, including shipping, returns and refund policies
Always abide by Meta’s policies, including our Community Standards and Commerce Policies
Keep your account secure by turning on two-factor authentication

As well as building trust with your customers, it’s important that businesses increase their account security to help prevent unauthorised access, and we recommend to do the following:

Enable two-factor authentication

To help prevent unauthorised access to business accounts online, we recommend the use of two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication is a security feature that helps protect your accounts and mitigate the risk of unauthorised activity, like someone else adding or removing users or creating ads.

Turn on suspicious activity alerts

Sign up to receive alerts if anyone logs in from a device or browser that isn’t you. You can also turn on notifications to receive alerts around Business Manager roles, ad accounts, and ad approvals.

Monitor ads and spending closely

We encourage you to check any active ads and your account billing weekly to ensure all activity is in line with your expectations. If there’s spending activity on your account that you don’t recognise, review your purchase history. If you still don’t recognise the activity, contact us for help.

Business owners who are looking for more proactive ways to strengthen security can review our best practices for businesses guide for help with safeguarding personal and business accounts.

We know that you have a lot to do as a business owner, but taking time to review these tips over your next cup of coffee or tea, will go a long way to help you leverage our investment in keeping your online presence secure.

While these scam techniques are not unique to Meta’s platforms, we want to help small businesses to better detect scam behaviour. Together we aim to create an environment where your customers engage with your business in a safe way.

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