Business email compromise (BEC)

Business email compromise (BEC) is a category of fraud in which attackers use email — either hacked, spoofed, or impersonating — to manipulate employees into transferring money or sensitive data. Unlike bulk phishing, BEC attacks are carefully researched and targeted.

The most common BEC scenarios include: a 'CEO' emailing the CFO for an urgent, confidential wire transfer; a 'lawyer' emailing about a confidential acquisition requiring immediate payment; a 'supplier' email notifying of changed bank details; and a 'payroll' email requesting salary redirects to a new account.

BEC causes billions in losses annually worldwide. Strong countermeasures include out-of-band verification for any payment requests (phone the requestor on a known number), dual-approval processes for wire transfers, and email authentication (DMARC) to reduce domain spoofing.