The ease and speed of online business banking may be giving wayto a growing amount of fraud. This month the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation warned about “a significant increase” in onlinebanking frauds perpetrated on small and midsize businesses andlocal governments.

The FBI described a scenario in which a company's computer isinfected when an employee–usually one with the authority toinitiate funds transfers–clicks on an infected e-mail attachment orvisits an infected Website. The malware installed on the computerharvests the logons for the company's bank accounts, and the cybercriminal uses that information to initiate ACH or wire transfers.AnFBI report describing the problem estimates attempted theftstotaled about $100 million as of October.

Many small businesses aren't even aware of the threat to onlinebanking until they're hit with a loss, says Avivah Litan, ananalyst at technology research firm Gartner. And Litan notes thatunlike consumers, who have legal protection in the case of suchlosses, businesses aren't necessarily able to recover money that isstolen from their accounts.