Email is one of the most widely used and essential forms of communication in the modern world. Whether it is for personal or professional purposes, email enables us to connect and collaborate with people across the globe. However, email also exposes us to various cyber threats, such as email spoofing, spear phishing, impersonation scams, and ransomware. One of the most dangerous and costly types of email-based attacks is Business Email Compromise (BEC).
What is Business Email Compromise?
BEC is a form of cyberattack that targets organizations and individuals through fraudulent emails that appear to come from trusted sources, such as colleagues, partners, clients, or suppliers. The goal of BEC attacks is to trick the recipients into transferring money, disclosing sensitive information, or performing unauthorized actions that benefit the attackers. BEC attacks can take different forms, such as:
- Invoice Fraud: Attackers send fake invoices to trick recipients into making payments to fraudulent accounts.
- CEO Fraud: Impersonating a high-ranking executive to authorize urgent and unauthorized financial transactions.
- Vendor Impersonation: Pretending to be a trusted vendor to manipulate the victim into transferring funds or sharing sensitive information.
- Account Compromise: Gaining access to an employee’s email account to conduct unauthorized activities, such as sending fraudulent emails to contacts.
BEC attacks are a serious and growing threat to email users around the world. BEC attacks have resulted in more than $2.7 billion in losses in 2022, with 21,832 complaints being filed to the IC3. BEC attacks can affect any industry, sector, or size of organization, but some of the most targeted ones are finance, healthcare, technology, and manufacturing.
Learn how to use S/MIME to secure your enterprise’s email
How to prevent BEC Scams
To protect against BEC scams, organizations must invest in comprehensive cybersecurity measures. This includes deploying strong email filters to detect and block suspicious emails, regularly updating security software and systems, and conducting vulnerability assessments to identify and patch potential weaknesses. Additionally, organizations should implement the following best practices to prevent BEC scams:
- Educate employees about BEC scams and how to recognize them. Employees should be aware of the common signs of a BEC scam, such as urgent or unusual requests, changes in payment details, grammatical errors, or mismatched sender information. Employees should also be trained on how to verify the identity and legitimacy of the sender before responding to any email request, especially if it involves money or confidential data.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all email accounts. MFA is a security feature that requires users to provide more than one piece of evidence to prove their identity, such as a password and a code sent to their phone or email. MFA can prevent unauthorized access to email accounts, even if the password is compromised.
- Establish strict approval procedures for financial transactions. Organizations should have clear and consistent policies and processes for approving and executing payments or transfers. These should include verifying the request through a different channel, such as a phone call or a face-to-face meeting, and requiring multiple approvals from different levels of authority. Organizations should also limit the number of employees who have the authority to initiate or approve transactions, and monitor their email activity and usage.
- Adopt a strong password policy and use a password manager. Passwords are the first line of defense against cyberattacks, and they should be strong, complex, and unique for each account. A password manager is a tool that helps users create and store passwords securely, and autofill them when needed. A password manager can prevent users from reusing passwords or falling for phishing emails that ask for their credentials.
- Regularly backup data and maintain a disaster recovery plan. In case of a successful BEC scam, organizations should have a backup of their data and a plan to restore their operations as quickly as possible. A backup is a copy of the data that is stored in a different location or device, and it can help recover lost or corrupted data. A disaster recovery plan is a set of steps and procedures that outline how to respond to and recover from a cyberattack, and it can help minimize the impact and damage of a BEC scam.
BEC scams are a serious threat to the security and reputation of any organization. By following these tips, organizations can reduce the risk of falling victim to a BEC scam and protect their sensitive information and financial assets.
Securing Against Future Threats
To protect ourselves from BEC attacks, we need to follow some best practices and tips, such as verifying the sender’s identity and authenticity, using strong passwords and multi-factor authentication, educating and training employees, and conducting regular security audits.
However, the most effective way to prevent and mitigate BEC attacks is to use secure and encrypted email communication with digital certificates. Digital certificates verify the identity and authenticity of the sender and the recipient of an email, and enable encryption and digital signing of email messages. By using digital certificates, you can ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of our email communication, and enhance the trust and reputation of your organization and its email communications.
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