ACH payments are a fast, inexpensive and reliable means of electronic funds transfer.  The ACH network has been one among the safest way of making payments since its inception over 35 years ago.

During the past year, the news has reported breaches of corporate and government accounts by cybercriminals, resulting in over $100 million in losses.  These breaches were not caused by lack of security within the ACH payments network.   Rather, the breaches resulted from either bank or corporate negligence or both.

In some cases, the banks did not have adequate security controls in place which allowed cybercriminals to hack into customer accounts.  In other situations, businesses or governments did not use the advanced control systems that were available through the banks.

Even though the ACH network is very safe, corporations and government agencies must secure payment transactions as much as possible.  They should implement all available security features such as debit blocks and filters to prevent unauthorized debits to accounts.

Banks must also due their part to secure payment processing transactions. Banks should consistently require on multifactor authentication, layered security, and other controls designed to prevent security breaches.

For more information, contact info@nationalach.com