Business Email Compromise

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is one of the most damaging cyberattacks. Attackers impersonate high-ranking executives to fool employees into performing potentially risky actions like wiring money or divulging sensitive data.

Fraudsters use various means to defraud businesses for financial gain, including phishing, fake email addresses, malware, or account compromise attacks. Learn how to guard against these costly attacks with BEC prevention best practices.

Defending Against Business Email Compromise

Cybercriminals take advantage of our dependence on email to conduct business and transfer money. Phishing attacks continue to account for most cyberattacks; however, business email compromise (BEC) scams have emerged as among the most financially detrimental cyberattacks, impacting organizations of all sizes.

BEC scams involve impersonating trusted authorities like an executive or HR director in order to convince employees into taking actions that compromise security or financial assets. Attackers typically use very specific, time-sensitive requests with an urgent tone in order to convince recipients that the request is legit; new employees in particular are vulnerable due to being unfamiliar with communication patterns within their workplace.

Leveraging Email Security Platforms to Detect Threats

Though cyberattacks can be difficult to avoid entirely, effective practices can help your organization remain safe from attacks. Never click unsolicited links or download unknown software without verifying first and acting calmly when suspicious requests come your way. Furthermore, an effective privileged access management (PAM) solution provides another layer of defense.

Be mindful that BEC attacks differ significantly from traditional hacking attacks such as phishing. BEC does not generate standard indicators of compromise such as malware hashes or exploit chains; detection requires using identity signals, communication behavior analysis, and access telemetry data to recognize small deviations in how users communicate and the speed with which privileges shift.

Identifying BEC Scams

BEC attackers seek to achieve two main objectives with their attacks: impersonate a trusted entity (for instance, an executive or high-level employee via email addresses that they falsify), in order to deceive victims into taking actions that compromise security or financial assets in their organizations – in most cases, they aim for wire transfers, as this allows attackers access into organizations more quickly.

BEC attackers are master ployers, taking aim at all sorts of organizations – not only businesses of all sizes but government agencies as well. Nonprofits managing large donations or grants often become targets as do schools and universities processing tuition payments or vendor invoices – among many other targets.

Red Flags of a Business Email Compromise Attack

Red flags of a Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack include requests from company executives for wire transfers, inaccuracies in invoice payment details, or emails asking employees to disclose sensitive data. Recognizing these red flags quickly is key in mitigating any negative effects caused by BEC attacks.

BEC attacks require looking beyond traditional email filters and employing behavioral analytics, identity telemetry, and message flow correlation tools. Furthermore, using multifactor authentication on all corporate accounts – including executives’, finance professionals’, HR personnel’s, and administrators’ accounts—can prevent hackers from accessing them to launch a BEC attack.

Strengthening Internal Security Protocols

Strengthening internal protocols for financial transactions, such as dual approval processes for wire transfers and updates to vendor payment details, can significantly lower the likelihood of a Business Email Compromise attack. Implementing email authentication measures like DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) and SPF (Sender Policy Framework) can also prevent attackers from falsifying domain names on behalf of your organization.

Detecting BEC Scams

Employees that lack training on BEC scams can easily fall prey to such attacks and lose thousands – or even millions – of dollars. Thankfully, technology provides protection from these costly attacks.

An email security platform, for instance, can analyze both incoming and outgoing messages to detect red flags such as suspicious attachments and sender addresses that indicate potential BEC attempts and provide alerts so administrators can act swiftly against them.

Threat actors commonly target executives or others with purchasing power, handling of confidential data or fiduciary responsibilities. Through social engineering techniques they employ impersonations of these individuals in order to manipulate them into wiring funds or providing sensitive data voluntarily. Attackers might even falsify invoice payment details or trick an employee into authorizing a wire transfer through their fake bank accounts.

Common Manipulation Techniques Used by BEC Actors

Therefore, organizations must establish stringent cybersecurity protocols and educate their employees to be vigilant against threats. Employees with sufficient knowledge can spot such attacks by carefully scrutinizing email messages before clicking links or downloading attachments; multifactor authentication (MFA) also offers additional protection should hackers gain access to passwords.

MFA utilizes multiple forms of verification – like fingerprint authentication or authenticator apps – before providing access to accounts, adding another layer of protection against potential attacks against high-value accounts like those managed by finance professionals and HR representatives

Defending Against BEC Scams

BEC attackers use various methods—social engineering, email spoofing, and impersonation strategies—to gain entry into organizations that conduct financial transactions or sensitive data. BEC attacks are aimed at a wide variety of organizations, such as large corporations, law firms, and real estate companies, government agencies with budgetary authority, and not-for-profit organizations that conduct grants or tuition payments.

One of the things that makes Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks so nefarious is the fact that they are subtle.  They employ sensational language, spoof senders to make them closely resemble actual contacts, and avoid traditional malware that antivirus software is able to detect. For this reason, traditional security solutions like spam filters and signature-based anti-virus software typically are unable to detect BEC attempts.

To counter this adaptive threat, organizations need to shift beyond rudimentary security measures. Advanced phishing defense, real-time monitoring, and identity-associated behavioral analysis are needed to detect refined red flags, like altered tone or communication patterns.

To stay safe, companies need to:

• Apply callback verification on each financial order change.
• Implement two-level approval procedures for high-risk transactions.
• Log and audit all exceptions or anomalies for future analysis.
• Deploy domain validation methods like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
• Identify typo-variant domains and verify reply-to domain consistency.

How Orasec Helps Secure against BEC Attacks

Orasec offers intelligent, visionary cybersecurity solutions that are specifically engineered to address threats of today like Business Email Compromise. Their offering comprises

• Enhanced threat monitoring to detect suspicious behavior in email communication.
• Features of real-time phishing detection and reporting.
• Behavioral analytics to monitor communication frequency, tone, and context.
• Security compliance software to assist in enforcing email and financial security policies across departments.

With the help of Orasec’s advanced technology, businesses can enhance their cyberdefense position, gain knowledge of impending BEC attacks, and respond before financial loss is incurred.

Conclusion: Don’t Take BEC Threats Lightly—Act Earlier

Business Email Compromise attacks aren’t a technical problem—they’re a people problem that’s predicated on trust and timing. From wire transfer schemes to executive spoofing, attackers are getting smarter and smarter, and organizations must keep pace.

The best defense is being multi-layered and entails:

Employee training and awareness,

Advanced behavioral threat detection,

Strong financial verification processes, and

Features such as those of Orasec, which offer real-time insight and analysis to prevent BEC attacks from progressing.  Don’t wait for a costly mistake. Take action now to defend your business against Business Email Compromise.