Published: February 20, 2026
Our bulletin Cyber Threat Watch has been created to help small businesses stay up to date on the latest threats, news, and events affecting their business. The content has been curated to make cybersecurity easy and accessible for both technical and nontechnical readers.
Featured Cyber Threat – Business Identity Risk
Many cybersecurity incidents affecting small businesses don’t begin with malware or system exploitation, but with impersonation, where attackers misuse legitimate business information to appear trusted and manipulate others. These incidents commonly involve redirecting payments, posing as vendors, or opening fraudulent accounts by using credible company details.
In the United States, consumer identity theft protections are designed for individuals, not for organizations—they are implemented under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) program for individuals and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for consumer credit protections. When business identities are misused, incidents are handled as fraud through bank dispute processes and contractual remedies rather than identity theft recovery mechanisms for individuals. As a result, businesses are responsible for resolving financial loss and operational impact without access to consumer identity theft and credit protections.
What Is Business Identity? A Comparison with Other Forms of Identity
Business identity refers to the identifiers that allow an organization to operate, transact, and be recognized as legitimate in digital and commercial contexts. These identifiers are routinely used in email, system access, banking, vendor relationships, and government filings. Because of this, they become a frequent target for impersonation and abuse.
Here is how they differ.
| Aspect | Business Identity | Personal Identity | Non-Human Identity (NHI) |
| Scope | Organizations | Individuals | Systems, software applications, services, devices, and automated processes |
| Purpose | To prove a business is legitimate for operations and transactions | To verify a person’s identity for system access and transactions | To allow systems and services to access resources and enable transactions |
| Identifier | Legal business name, trade name/doing business as (DBA), registration or incorporation number, Tax Identification Number (TIN), business bank account, registered web domain, official business email address | Legal full name, national personal identification number, date of birth, residential/mailing address, phone number, personal bank account, personal email address | System account, service account, device credential, digital certificate, authentication token, application programming interface (API) key |
| Misuse Classification | Fraud, impersonation, or misrepresentation | Identity theft | Unauthorized access or credential abuse |
| Handling Approach | Police report filing, tax authority reporting, regulatory reporting, bank dispute, contractual remedy, vendor and customer notification, tightened internal control | Identity theft reporting, police report filing, tax authority reporting, credit bureau notification, credit report review, bank dispute, user account reset, bank or credit card replacement, credit alert sign-up and monitoring, issuance of new national personal identification number (last resort, proven fraudulent case only) | System or service account deletion, device or service disabling, configuration update, credential revocation, key rotation |
| Consumer Protection | Not applicable | Applicable | Not applicable |
How Your Business Can Mitigate the Risk
Identity-based attacks succeed when business information is widely exposed, poorly controlled, or accessible beyond intended users. Therefore, mitigation requires basic cyber hygiene focused on how business information and system access are managed, including the following measures.
- Reduce Exposure of Sensitive Business Information-
– Treat business identifiers (e.g., registration, tax, and banking details) as sensitive information
– Limit where this information is stored, shared, or publicly exposed
– Avoid embedding sensitive information in public-facing documents unless necessary - Strengthen Access Controls-
– Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for email and accounting systems that manage vendors, payments, and payroll
– Restrict administrative access to systems that manage vendor records and financial data
– Segregate roles so no single account can both approve new vendors and update payment instructions - Improve Verification Processes
– Verify changes to vendor or banking information through another trusted channel
– Treat urgent requests claiming to be from owners, managers, vendors, or banks as warning signs
– Be cautious of messages that rely on familiarity or include accurate business details to appear legitimate - Control Non-Human Access
– Identify system and service accounts tied to financial or operational functions
– Rotate keys and tokens regularly and revoke them when roles or systems change
– Do not store passwords or access keys in shared files or applications - Prepare for Misuse
– Review who can access, change, or reuse business identifiers across systems
– Train internal personnel so they can recognize impersonation tactics
– Document how identity-related incidents are escalated and verified internally
In particular, senior executives and business owners are frequently targeted because they can authorize payments, approve changes to vendor or banking information in the system, and override internal controls. For this reason, attackers may impersonate internal staff, vendors, or trusted partners with credible information to pressure quick decisions. Therefore, the controls outlined above—strong access control, role segregation, and verification through multiple trusted channels—are especially important for leadership.
Conclusion
Business identity misuse involves the use of legitimate business information for impersonation rather than system exploitation. As a result, the absence of consumer protections for organizations makes strong cyber hygiene essential to reducing business risk and impact.
The NCSS encourages businesses to adopt comprehensive security practices and stay informed about evolving threats. We recommend you consider becoming an NCSS member to access a wide range of our services. For more information, visit our Small Business page.
References
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/identity-theft
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/fcra-may2023-508.pdf
https://attorneyatlawmagazine.com/legal-technology/avoiding-business-identity-theft
https://www.fraud.net/glossary/corporate-identity-theft#what-is-corporate-identity-theft
https://withpersona.com/blog/business-impersonation-fraud
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/security-101/what-are-non-human-identities
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/report-identity-theft-for-a-business
https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-central/identity-theft-guide-for-individuals
https://getcertain.ca/business-identity-theft-protection/
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/business-wallets
About the NCSS
The National Cybersecurity Society (NCSS) is committed to improving the online safety and security of the small business community through education, awareness, and advocacy. As a 501(3)(c) organization, the NCSS uses funds from charitable donations and grants to develop educational materials, webinars, weekly cyber tips, videos, and how-to-guides. The organization’s goal is to enable and empower small and medium businesses to obtain cybersecurity services, assist them in understanding their cyber risk, and advise on the type of protection needed. We want to continue to grow our community and encourage you to tell other small businesses we are here to help.
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