Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a fast-growing cybersecurity threat that all businesses, especially small and medium-sized (SMB) ones, face. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported in their 2020 Internet Crime Report that they fielded 19,369 Business Email Compromise (BEC) complaints amounting to over $1.8 billion in adjusted losses in the United States for that year.
About the author
Christopher Budd is Global Senior Threat Communications Manager at Avast.
BEC attacks primarily use email, but can be carried out using SMS messages, voice mail messages, and even phone calls. BEC attacks are notable because they rely heavily on so-called “social engineering” techniques, meaning they use trickery and deception against people.
BEC attacks can be very effective and anyone can fall victim to them, no matter how rich or sophisticated. In February 2020, Barbara Corcoran – the American businesswoman, investor and judge of the television entrepreneurial reality show “Shark Tank” – nearly lost almost $400,000 in a BEC scam. Luckily, fast action enabled her to…
