What Is a Business Email Compromise (BEC) and How to Stop It?

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a type of scam that uses social engineering to trick an employee into performing a fraudulent wire transfer or revealing confidential information. It’s a form of cyber fraud where the attacker, through careful impersonation, pretends to be a trusted authority figure like a CEO or a vendor.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a sophisticated cyber fraud where an attacker uses social engineering and impersonation to deceive a company into sending money or data. Unlike a random phishing attack, BEC targets a specific person to manipulate them into a fraudulent action.

A Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack is often referred to as Email Account Compromise (EAC), especially when the scam involves a hacker taking control of a legitimate company email account. It is also a form of spear-phishing as it targets a specific individual.

A typical BEC scam works by an attacker gaining access to an email account through phishing or malware, or by creating a spoofed email that looks real. Using impersonation and social engineering, they send a convincing email to a key employee, such as someone in finance, demanding an urgent wire transfer or sensitive data.

A typical BEC attack involves several steps: first, the attacker researches the company’s digital footprint to identify targets. Next, they use spear-phishing or a spoofed email to initiate contact. Finally, through social engineering, they convince the employee to transfer funds, leading to a significant financial loss.

There are several types of BEC scams, including CEO fraud, where an attacker impersonates the CEO to request a payment, and an invoice scam, where they pretend to be a vendor requesting a change in payment details. These scams leverage impersonation to commit cyber fraud.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is the overall scam involving social engineering and impersonation, while Email Account Compromise (EAC) is a specific method where the attacker gains actual access to and control of a business email account.

Whaling is a specific type of BEC attack that targets senior executives and top management, often referred to as “big fish.” While all whaling attacks are a type of BEC, not all BEC attacks are whaling, as some may target lower-level employees.

Scammers typically target individuals with access to company finances or sensitive data, such as those in the finance or HR departments. They rely on social engineering to convince these key employees, especially in small businesses, that their request is legitimate.

The main goal of BEC is almost always a financial loss for the victim. The attackers use social engineering to trick employees into making fraudulent wire transfers, paying fake invoices, or stealing sensitive data that can later be monetized.

Unlike typical phishing scams that send out mass emails with malicious links or attachments, BEC attacks are highly personalized. They often contain no malicious content, instead relying on social engineering and impersonation to trick the target into a voluntary action.

BEC emails often contain urgent, authoritative language and may come from a spoofed email address. They rarely have attachments or links and are designed to appear as a legitimate request from a trusted colleague, a tactic of social engineering.

BEC attacks are hard to detect because they don’t rely on malicious links or attachments that traditional threat detection systems look for. They use convincing social engineering, impersonation, and domain spoofing, making them look very real to the untrained eye.

Common social engineering techniques in BEC emails include creating a sense of urgency, using high-level authority (CEO fraud), and demanding secrecy to prevent the employee from double-checking the request. These methods exploit human trust and are key to the scam.

Telltale signs of a BEC email include a sense of urgency, a request for a confidential wire transfer, or a slightly misspelled sender address from domain spoofing. If something feels off, it’s a good sign that email security is needed.

Traditional secure email gateways (SEGs) can struggle to block BEC campaigns because the emails often don’t contain malware or malicious links. Newer, more advanced threat detection solutions are needed to analyze email content and behavioral patterns to identify these threats.

Yes, BEC attacks are very common and their financial impact is staggering. According to the FBI, they are a leading cause of financial loss for both large corporations and small businesses around the world, resulting in billions of dollars in exposed losses annually.

Besides financial loss, BEC attacks can lead to severe damage to a business’s reputation and client trust. They can also cause data theft, and in some cases, can be a gateway for attackers to install ransomware or other malicious software, leading to even greater harm.

A proactive email security solution is needed because modern cyber threats like BEC are constantly evolving and are very difficult to detect. Relying on basic protection is not enough, especially for small businesses. Proactive solutions use advanced threat detection to stop attacks before they can cause damage.

Some recommended prevention strategies for BEC attacks include implementing strong email authentication protocols, using MFA (multi-factor authentication), and conducting regular security awareness training. These measures are crucial for protecting your business.

You can prevent BEC by using a multi-layered approach to email security. Key measures include using advanced threat detection, implementing DMARC to prevent domain spoofing, and ensuring your employees are trained to spot social engineering tactics.

The NCSC guidance is especially useful for small businesses and organizations that may lack the resources of larger companies. It provides practical prevention strategies and advice on how to protect yourself from phishing and other BEC threats.

Barracuda’s AI-powered email security uses machine learning for advanced threat detection. It analyzes email content, sender behavior, and historical patterns to identify and block sophisticated scams like BEC, even when they don’t contain malicious files or links.

Organizations can assess their current email security posture by using free security scans or by engaging a cybersecurity firm to perform a full audit. This process helps them identify vulnerabilities and improve their prevention strategies against threats like BEC.

While both companies offer strong email security solutions, Barracuda’s AI-powered approach claims to block more phishing attempts than Microsoft’s native filters. This is due to its focus on detecting social engineering and advanced BEC scams.

Yes, Barracuda’s email security technology has received industry recognition as a “Grid Leader” by G2 for various categories, including Cloud Email Security and Intelligent Email Protection, highlighting its effectiveness in threat detection and prevention.

To reduce the likelihood of a BEC attack, small businesses can take practical steps like enabling MFA (multi-factor authentication) on email accounts and training employees to identify a spoofed email. They should also work to limit their public-facing digital footprint.

After a BEC attack, a business should activate its incident response plan. This includes immediately contacting their bank to try and stop the wire transfer, reporting the incident to law enforcement, and changing all passwords related to the account compromise.

If an account compromise has occurred, an organization should immediately change the account’s password and enable MFA (multi-factor authentication). Then, they should scan the system for malware and begin their incident response process to contain the damage.

If a fraudulent payment has been made, an organization should immediately contact the bank to request a recall of the wire transfer. They should also file a report with law enforcement to begin their incident response and take steps to prevent a future financial loss.

Organizations can plan for potential compromises by developing a clear incident response plan. They should practice this plan regularly and consider services that simulate attacks to test their prevention strategies and their team’s readiness for a real-world BEC event.