Quote:Business email compromise (BEC) attacks ramped up significantly in 2020, with more than $1.8 billion stolen from organizations with these types of attacks last year alone — and things are getting worse.
 
BEC attacks are carried out by cybercriminals either impersonating someone inside an organization, or masquerading as a partner or vendor, bent on financial scamming.

A new report from Cisco’s Talos Intelligence examined the tactics of some of the most dangerous BEC attacks observed in the wild in 2020, and reminded the security community that in addition to technology, smart users armed with a healthy skepticism of outside communications and the right questions to ask are the best line of defense.
 
“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,” the report said.
 
It’s easy to get hung up on the splashy breaches of major global companies. But the true revenue is being generated by smaller BEC attacks, the report said.
 
“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 much of the law-enforcement attention these other groups have to contend with,” the report explained. “If anything, the likelihood of this has only increased in the pandemic, with people relying more and more on digital communication.”