Employee education is vital. Another best practice is to set up an email gateway to flag keywords like “payment,” “urgent,” “sensitive” and “secret” — all of which are common in fraudulent emails. Business email compromise (BEC) is a security exploit in which the attacker targets an employee who has access to company funds and convinces the victim to tranfer money into a bank account controlled by the attacker. More money is lost to this type of attack than any other cybercriminal activity. By. According to the FBI’s 2017 Internet Crime Report, BEC and email account compromise (EAC) represented the highest reported losses — costing 15,690 victims more than $676 million. Business email compromise (BEC) attacks are arguably the most sophisticated of all email phishing attacks, and some of the most costly. Attorney Impersonation- Attackers pretend to be a lawyer or someone from the law firm supposedly in charge of crucial and confidential matters. CEO Fraud- Attackers pose as the company CEO or any executive and send an email to employees in finance, requesting them to transfer money to the account they control. Such data can be used for future attacks. It exploits the fact that so many of … Some of the sample email messages have subjects containing words such as request, payment, transfer, and urgent, among others. From there, they then attempt to get to an unsuspecting employee, customer, or vendor to transfer funds or confidential information. Business email compromise attacks target companies, rather than individuals, and appear to come from a colleague the person already knows. These attacks pose a serious risk to companies that manage financial transfers and payments — for example, costs to Canadian companies have been estimated at approximately $33 million since 2016 alone. Insurance claims received by Aviva highlight the seriousness and increasing complexity of business email compromise attacks. Account Compromise-An executive or employee’s email account is hacked and used to request invoice payments to vendors listed in their email contacts. Listen to the podcast: Social Engineering 101 — How to Hack a Human, Joan is an award-winning veteran journalist, editor, writer, researcher. Understanding what a business email compromise attack looks like and its associated risks is the first step in safeguarding your business against this type of fraud. Normally, such bogus requests are done through email or phone, and during the end of the business day. CISOMAG - November 4, 2020. The fraudulent email might claim, for example, that a supplier requires prompt payment for a service rendered. Analysis and insights from hundreds of the brightest minds in the cybersecurity industry to help you prove compliance, grow business and stop threats. Business email compromise (BEC) is a type of phishing scheme in which an attacker impersonates a high-level executive and attempts to trick an … A Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a form of spear (targeted) phishing that aims to trick employees (generally in finance or HR) into transferring funds into a ‘new’ business bank account (belonging to the cybercriminal) or sharing sensitive information at the request of a cybercriminal impersonating a senior executive. So, what do you need to watch out for? BEC, also known as CEO impersonation, is defined as “a form of phishing attack where a cybercriminal impersonates an executive and attempts to get an employee, customer, or vendor to transfer funds or sensitive information to the phisher.” Most importantly, employees should not reply to risky emails under any circumstances. Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Email Account Compromise (EAC) afflict businesses of all sizes across every industry. and attempts to get an employee or customer to transfer money and/or sensitive data. From 2016-2018, BEC alone made $5.3 billion [1], but it’s not an attack that everyone is familiar with. Data Theft – Employees under HR and bookkeeping are targeted to obtain personally identifiable information (PII) or tax statements of employees and executives. From 2016-2018, BEC alone made $5.3 billion, but it's not an attack that everyone is familiar with. Business Email Compromise Attacks Surge in Q3 2020. BEC attacks, meanwhile, are geared around impersonation. General information about the company (i.e., where it does business and with whom), Information about new products, services and patents. Victims also come from a variety of industries, with no one sector appearing to be a favored target. 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