A report released by the FBI in August revealed that over 7,000 U.S. companies of varying sizes have lost approximately $740 million plus in email attacks starting in late 2013.

Especially vulnerable are small companies which have no appropriate security checks for their banking accounts.

According to a December 2015 survey conducted by the National Small Business Association of business owners, cybercriminals have stolen an average of $32,000 from small businesses. Unfortunately, these businesses have no legal protection from bank account fraud the same way individual consumers have.

Individual consumers are protected from bank account theft by the Electronic Funds Transfer Act of 1978, but that law does not mention any protection given to businesses.

According to Doug Johnson, American Bankers Association senior vice president, the only protection a business can get is if it strikes a deal with the bank to secure its account.

However, the bank could forgo its accountability if the business has not complied with the security requirements imposed by its agreement with the bank.

The days of bank robbers physically robbing a bank for its loot are now over. The world has now seen the birth of cybercriminals using software/malware to access online bank accounts and steal millions of dollars.

"Now anyone can download a cyber Kalashnikov, a cyber getaway car and a cyber grenade from a myriad of sites," said Tom Kellermann, Trend Micro vice president for cyber security.

Software used by cybercriminals offer fully automated features that do not require hackers to manually transfer money from one bank account to another. This enables online thieves to stay hidden much more than they were able to in the past.

Cyber thieves are also able now to access whole servers which are designed to target individual banks. But the gravest dangers to legitimate bank account holders is that they will no longer have a clue that their funds were compromised until long after their money have been stolen.