Business Email Compromise - How to Protect Your Company

BEC scams are particularly dangerous because they leverage familiarity and trust within a company. Unlike traditional spam emails with glaring red flags, BEC emails often appear to come from known senders, with carefully crafted subject lines and email addresses that closely resemble legitimate contacts.

CEO Fraud: Attackers impersonate the CEO or another high-level executive, instructing employees to urgently wire transfer funds to a specific account, often for a fictitious purpose.

Account Payable Spoofing: Scammers pose as a vendor and send emails requesting a change in payment instructions, diverting funds to a fraudulent account.

W-2 Email Phishing: Attackers target human resources personnel, requesting employee W-2 forms or other sensitive tax information under the guise of legitimate business needs.

Employee Training: Regular cybersecurity awareness training is crucial. Educate employees on BEC tactics, red flags to watch for, and proper procedures for verifying requests, especially those involving money transfers or data sharing.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enforce MFA for all company email accounts and other sensitive systems. MFA adds an extra layer of security, requiring a secondary verification step beyond just a username and password.