---
title: "Cybersecurity: A CEO’s Nightmare Holiday Call to Action"
description: Cybersecurity nightmares play out daily for CEOs across the HCIT/ fintech market. When your organization gets hit, will you be prepared?
---

[FMP Blog](https://finmedpartners.com/blog)

# [Cybersecurity: A CEO’s Nightmare Holiday Call to Action](https://finmedpartners.com/blog/cybersecurity-a-ceos-nightmare-holiday-call-to-action)

 Written by [Rob Pinataro, MBA, QTE](https://finmedpartners.com/blog/author/rob-pinataro-mba-qte) | 12/11/25 7:31 PM

Jane, CEO of XYZPay.com, was carving the holiday roast, the house full of laughter and the January board deck done with better‑than‑budget numbers, a pristine cap table, and a top‑tier banker waiting to launch a sale process—when her company cell phone rang. Her head of security, voice tight, said customer accounts were being compromised, $3M of payments were missing; PHI exfiltration was unknown; and the Security Incident Response Team was gathering.  60 seconds killed Jane’s holiday joy…

This nightmare plays out daily for CEOs across the HCIT/FinTech market. When attackers hit your firm, will they find you prepared, or will you be receiving that dreaded phone call?

**Successful Defense Starts with Studying the Enemy’s Tactics**

Some CEOs feel that security matters are too technical to understand and feel incapable of proactively driving fraud prevention.  In fact, “user-assisted”  fraud is a process which can be understood by anyone.  A leader who understands that process can virtually eliminate fraud by all but the most determined or state-sponsored fraudsters.

**The Process of Compromising an Account**

- **Harvest credentials**: Fraudsters create a fake website (e.g., XYZP@y.com),andsend phishing emails or texts urging customers to take urgent action.Whencustomers try to log in, credentials are stolen, and they are redirected to the real site.
- **Break into the system**: Fraudsters log into the platform, and change contact information to divert MFA alerts​.
- **Exploit the system**: The perpetrators create admin users and tell more fraudsters how to break in. They change “pay to” bank account numbers and divert payments, and exfiltrate PHI records.

**Breaking the Fraudster’s Process by Complicating Every Step**

- **Reduce credential harvesting via External Attack Surface Management (EASM)**: Use an EASM firm to find fraudulent websites, shut them down quickly, and monitor the dark web for threats.
- **Reduce fraudulent system access via Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)**: Use the MFA present in business email and other business platforms.  Use a 3rd party MFA solution for XYZPay’s SaaS platform. Train users to be phish-resistant.
- **Prevent system exploitation by protecting sensitive actions**: Limit access based on roles and require MFA and extra verification for changes to bank accounts, user accounts, and contact information.

If each of the above steps is 80% effective, the entire process becomes 99.2% effective at preventing fraud. Well-run businesses can achieve much higher than 80% effectiveness at each step.

​**Immediate Actions to Reduce Risk**

Ask the following of your CISO:

- **Is our firm using External Attack Surface Management (EASM)?** It takes days to implement, is highly effective, and can be done inexpensively.
- **How complete is the MFA coverage of our business?** It needs to be everywhere. 
    - Confirm MFA is required on business email and all other business software
    - Mandate use of company email addresses for MFA on all business platforms which use email as a verification method
    - For XYZPay’s proprietary SaaS or payment processing platform: a) if MFA is not in place, start a project with a 3rd party MFA solution provider, or b) if MFA is in place, confirm coverage of all accounts and enable the most phish-resistant verification options.
- **How are we tracking, alerting, and triggering verification for high-risk user actions?** 
    - Log user actions.
    - Use Security Incident and Event Management tool to report on those actions and alert upon unusual or known suspect behaviors.

**Conclusion**

No fraud prevention solution is perfect, but these actions are simple, cost-effective, and can reduce your fraud risk by two orders of magnitude. Become the hard target, let the fraudsters work on someone else, and enjoy your holiday in peace!

[View full post](https://finmedpartners.com/blog/cybersecurity-a-ceos-nightmare-holiday-call-to-action)

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