BEC Attacks have Stolen $1.8 Billion from Businesses

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks increased drastically in 2020, with more than $1.8 billion stolen from businesses in just one year. BEC attacks are carried out by hackers who impersonate someone inside a company or pose as a partner or vendor in order to defraud the company. 

The tactics of some of the most dangerous BEC attacks observed in the wild in 2020 were examined in a new report from Cisco’s Talos Intelligence, which reminded the security community that smart users armed with a healthy skepticism of outside communications and the right questions to ask are the best line of defense, in addition to technology. 

According to the FBI, BEC assaults are getting more dangerous. They discovered a 136 % increase in the number of successful BEC attacks (reported) around the world between December 2016 and May 2018. Between October 2013 and May 2018, it is estimated that Business Email Compromise cost businesses over $12 billion. Analysts predict that these attacks will grow more regular and that the financial costs connected with them will continue to rise. 

The report stated, “The reality is, these types of emails and requests happen legitimately all over the world every day, which is what makes this such a challenge to stop.” It’s tempting to get hooked up on huge global corporations’ high-profile data breaches. The genuine revenue, however, is made via smaller BEC attacks, according to the report. 

“Although a lot of attention gets paid to more destructive and aggressive threats like big-game hunting, it’s BEC that generates astronomical revenue without muc

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