BEC = Business Email Compromise

Email is now an essential part of both business and personal life. Attackers picked up on this too, of course, and have started prioritizing BEC (Business Email Compromise) attacks — over the past year their numbers…

BEC = Business Email Compromise

Email is now an essential part of both business and personal life. Attackers picked up on this too, of course, and have started prioritizing BEC (Business Email Compromise) attacks — over the past year their numbers have nearly doubled. Roughly 98% of all employees do not report this kind of compromise of the company network.

What is BEC?

BEC (Business Email Compromise) is a type of attack that relies primarily on psychology and social engineering to fool victims. Attackers preferentially target accountants and owners, because they typically deal with the company's finances. They impersonate your business partners and send you an identical email — only with a changed bank account number. According to the FBI, these attacks cost companies

.4 billion in 2021.

How to defend against BEC?

Defending against these attacks is hard, but not impossible.

Educate your staff

The most effective method of preventing this kind of attack is making sure your employees know they can be targeted this way. We recommend creating a checklist of things they need to verify, and we recommend leading by example and following the same checklist.

•         Use unique, strong passwords + 2-factor authentication

•         Always check any account number at least twice; whenever a vendor's account changes, confirm it by phone (don't email — actually call the vendor)

•         If you receive an email like this, immediately notify the IT department

Enable email authentication: SPF, DKIM, DMARC

Email authentication protocols like DKIM, DMARC, and SPF reduce the volume of unwanted emails overall. They don't catch 100% of attacks, but they significantly reduce the count.

How do I check that my SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are set up correctly?

https://mxtoolbox.com/

Type your domain (e.g. ict-group.cz) and click MX Lookup — all green = everything is configured correctly.