BEC (Business email compromise) is a technique of cybercrime and is largely used in scams to defraud companies. Business email compromise involves a large and growing problem for most organizations to tackle because BEC scams have largely impacted organizations to billions of dollars in potential losses.
Email account takeover or EAC (email account compromise) is a growing threat in an era of cloud-based frameworks. BEC is often related to EAC because affected accounts are used in a growing number of BEC scams and EAC terms are the basis of other kinds of attacks but it’s often linked with BEC.
Most organizations even don’t know what is business email compromise because they think BEC and EAC are difficult to detect and prevent, especially with legacy tools, point products, and native cloud platform defenses.
Types of Business Email Compromise Involves
Most users get scammed with the use of email because 91 percent of cyberattacks have targeted email cybercrimes. This email could be dangerous to your organization and lead you to business email compromise. We have mentioned most prime types of BEC frauds:-
Data Theft
A company’s HR is easy to target for attackers for stealing company information like someone’s schedule or personal phone number. This way one of the other BEC scams and make it seem more believable.
False Invoice Scheme
The fraudster emails a bogus bill that frequently looks quite similar to the actual one, pretending to be a reputable vendor that your business interacts with. It might only be a single digit amiss on the account number. Alternatively, they can pretend your bank is undergoing an audit and urge you to pay another bank.
Business Email Compromise involves CEO fraud
Scammers send emails to staff members instructing them to make purchases or send money via wire transfer by either impersonating the CEO or breaking into their email accounts. The con artist may even urge a worker to buy gift cards before requesting pictures of the serial numbers.
Lawyer Impersonation
This technique is used to target law firms and gain unauthorized access to an email account. Attackers trap users with fake invoices or mention links to pay online. This way they send legitimate link addresses but fake accounts for fraud.
Account Compromise
This method is used to get access to a finance employee’s email account, scammers use phishing or malware viruses to decrypt account access. They target accounts affiliates employees from the organization such as an accounts receivable manager. Scammers send mail to the company’s authoritative people with fake invoices and make requests for payment to a fraudulent bank account.
Recognize Business Email Compromise Attacks Involves
BEC threats appear in various forms, but they can identified with the help of prevention techniques check emails with the peel eye, and don’t just go and click on the link like an ignorant employee because just one silly mistake of that employee could turn into billon of loss of money. Check with these quick methods:-
- Spoofed sender domain
- Contains typos and grammatical errors
- Urgency in the e-mail subject and body
- Requests for a fund transfer
- The sender is a famous or reputed person in the company
How to Prevent BEC Attacks
Security leaders can take some simple steps to prevent BEC from taking place. These include:
1. Raising Awareness
Alert your staff about the categories of BEC assaults and tech to analyze and spot BEC by phishing efforts and phishing simulation software.
2. Security Awareness Training
Keep updated with employee security awareness program training and phishing simulations to assess BEC and social engineering risks in mind. If you want to increase your cyber security span, create internal dedicated security personnel committed to keeping the environment safe and secure from outside attacks.
3. Monitor Employee Awareness
Encouragement of BEC and phishing knowledge among staff members through frequent phishing simulations is provided by security leaders and cyber security heroes. Employers should use microlearning modules to inform, instruct, and retrain staff members on cybersecurity best practices.
4. Send Ongoing Communications About Threats
Constantly communicate with staff members and run campaigns on BEC, social engineering, and cyber security. This entails creating strict password guidelines and informing staff members of the dangers associated with emails, URLs, and attachments.
5. Set Network Access Rules
Create a network with limited access to set boundaries for personal device use and prevent information sharing from the company’s perimeter.
6. Update All Infrastructure
Install malware and anti-spam software and make sure that all applications, operating systems, network tools, and internal software are up-to-date and secure.
Read Also:- Cybersecurity in Metaverse
Conclusion
In business email compromise involves various factors but still, you could follow prevention and follow them regularly. Scams or exposure could turn big giant companies into rats because attackers do not just steal the company’s assets but also steal their resources, the personal information of employees, and so on.
