Internal Security, Fraud Prevention & API Monitoring
Protect your business from financial fraud, unauthorized payment processor changes, and data theft. Learn auditing practices, bank account monitoring for Stripe and Square, and how to configure API monitoring checks that alert you to unauthorized modifications.
Start LearningProtect your business from financial fraud, unauthorized payment processor changes, and data theft. Learn auditing practices, bank account monitoring for Stripe and Square, and how to configure API monitoring checks that alert you to unauthorized modifications.
This course covers the practical security measures every aesthetics business owner and team member should implement to protect against financial fraud, unauthorized access, and silent changes to critical payment infrastructure.
You will learn how to audit your payment processors (Stripe, Square), monitor registered bank account information, set up API-level monitoring to detect unauthorized changes, and implement internal controls that catch fraud before it causes damage.
1 Understanding Internal Security Threats
Recognize the most common internal and external threats facing small businesses — from credential theft to social engineering to unauthorized payment redirects.
1.1 The Threat Landscape for Small Businesses
Why aesthetics clinics are targets — low security maturity, high transaction volume, multiple payment processors, and staff turnover create opportunities for fraud.
1.2 Social Engineering & Credential Theft
How attackers gain access through phishing, pretexting, and credential stuffing. Real-world examples from the healthcare and beauty industry.
1.3 Payment Redirect Fraud
The mechanics of unauthorized bank account changes on payment processors — how a single compromised login can silently redirect all revenue to an attacker.
2 Auditing Your Payment Processors
How to regularly verify bank account details, payout schedules, and authorized users on Stripe and Square. Includes step-by-step audit checklists.
2.1 Stripe Account Audit Checklist
Step-by-step verification of connected bank accounts, payout schedules, authorized team members, webhook endpoints, and API key permissions in your Stripe dashboard.
2.2 Square Account Audit Checklist
Verify bank accounts, locations, team permissions, OAuth app connections, and device authorizations in Square. Identify stale access tokens.
2.3 Scheduling Regular Audits
How to build a recurring audit cadence — weekly quick checks, monthly deep reviews, and what triggers an immediate out-of-cycle audit.
2.4 Documenting Your Baseline
Record the known-good state of your accounts so you can detect drift. What to capture: bank account last-4, routing numbers, authorized emails, webhook URLs.
3 API Monitoring & Change Detection
Set up automated monitoring that alerts you when critical settings change on your payment processors — the way IVONNE does it with webhook verification and bank account hash checks.
3.1 How API Monitoring Works
The concept of polling critical endpoints at intervals and comparing responses against a known-good baseline. Hash-based change detection explained simply.
3.2 Monitoring Stripe Bank Accounts via API
Use the Stripe API to periodically check external_accounts and compare against stored hashes. Alert immediately on any mismatch — the IVONNE approach.
3.3 Monitoring Square Bank Accounts via API
Use the Square API to verify bank account details and payout recipients remain unchanged. Detect unauthorized OAuth app registrations.
3.4 Webhook Integrity Verification
Ensure your webhook endpoints have not been tampered with. Monitor registered webhook URLs on both Stripe and Square for unauthorized additions or changes.
3.5 Building Alert Chains
When a change is detected, who gets notified, how fast, and through what channel. SMS, email, Slack — redundant notification ensures nothing is missed.
4 Fraud Prevention & Access Controls
Implement least-privilege access, MFA enforcement, session management, and separation of duties to minimize fraud risk.
4.1 Least-Privilege Access Principles
Never give more access than needed. How to configure Stripe and Square team roles so staff can process payments without accessing bank settings.
4.2 Multi-Factor Authentication Enforcement
MFA on every account that touches money. How to verify it is enabled, enforce it for team members, and what to do when someone loses their device.
4.3 Session Management & Device Trust
Monitor active sessions, revoke stale ones, and understand which devices have persistent access to your payment platforms.
4.4 Separation of Duties
The person who processes refunds should not be the person who adds bank accounts. How to structure roles to require collusion for fraud.
5 Incident Response & Recovery
What to do when you detect unauthorized changes, compromised credentials, or suspicious transactions. Notification chains, evidence preservation, and recovery steps.
5.1 Detecting a Compromise
Signs that something is wrong — unexpected payout schedule changes, new team members you did not add, webhook URLs pointing to unknown domains.
5.2 Immediate Response Steps
Lock accounts, rotate API keys, revoke OAuth tokens, freeze payouts. A prioritized checklist for the first 30 minutes after detection.
5.3 Evidence Preservation
Before you fix anything, capture screenshots, export audit logs, and document the timeline. This matters for insurance claims and law enforcement.
5.4 Recovery & Hardening
After containment: verify bank accounts, re-establish monitoring baselines, conduct a post-mortem, and implement controls to prevent recurrence.
5.5 Reporting Obligations
When and how to report financial fraud to your payment processor, your bank, FINTRAC (Canada), and law enforcement. Timelines and contact points.
Course Overview
- 5 modules
- 21 lessons
- Moderate complexity
365-day access
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