Businesses warned about online banking

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- The FBI and the American Bankers Association have issued a warning to small business owners to use a separate computer for online banking.

Small businesses, as well as churches, non-profit organizations and local government agencies and school districts, are prime targets for cyber theft, USA Today reports. The criminals depend on "banking Trojans," malicious software spread through the Internet that allows them to steal funds by manipulating electronic transfers.

Experts say a computer used only for banking is less likely to become infected than one used for e-mail and browsing the Web.

Small businesses and other small organizations are likely to be targeted because they depend on electronic transfers to pay employees and vendors, experts say. They are also more vulnerable because they do not have the same protections individual account-holders have.