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Guide

AI security for small business

AI makes scams cheaper and more convincing. The fix is mostly old-fashioned: slow down, verify, and agree on a few rules as a team.

This guide is educational. It is not legal or professional security advice.

What changed

Scam emails used to be easy to spot. Now AI writes clean, friendly messages that sound like your vendor or your boss. Voice tools can copy a voice from a short clip. Fake invoices look real. Scams still have clues, but they are harder to spot, so a callback rule and a second approval for payment changes do a lot of the work.

Five habits that make common scams harder

  1. Call back on a known number. Any request to move money, change bank details or share login codes gets verified on a number you already had. Not one in the message.
  2. Two people for payment changes. No single person changes where money goes.
  3. Turn on multi-factor sign-in. Email, banking and any AI tool your team uses.
  4. Pause on urgency. "Right now" and "keep this quiet" are the biggest red flags.
  5. Agree on a family or team code word for real emergencies by phone.

What not to paste into AI tools

  • Passwords, login codes and API keys.
  • Payment card and bank details.
  • Government ID numbers.
  • Health records and private client or student information.
  • Anything under a confidentiality agreement.

Put these rules in writing with our acceptable-use template.

If something already happened

  • Call your bank right away if money moved.
  • Change the password and sign out other sessions.
  • Tell your team so the same message does not work twice.
  • Report the scam to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

Train your team

AI security is part of our workshops. Email info@montereybay.ai.