KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Blog

"Staggering" Increase in Business Email Compromise--aka CEO Fraud

Written by Stu Sjouwerman | Oct 11, 2019 11:00:00 AM

Mimecast’s quarterly Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) identified millions of dangerous emails making it through security filters, including a 269% increase in business email compromise (BEC) attacks compared to the previous quarter.

Mimecast detected 28 million spam emails and nearly 29,000 malware attachments which made it into recipients’ inboxes. Additionally, the security firm observed 60,000 impersonation attacks.

Mimecast’s recent State of Email Security 2019 report reinforced these observations, finding that 85% of respondents experienced an impersonation attack last year. Joshua Douglas, vice president of threat intelligence at Mimecast, said the research highlights the need for improved security technologies and for the ability of users to defend themselves.

“This ESRA report pointed out that impersonation attacks continue to menace all types of organizations, but I think the real issue is that there are tens of thousands email-borne threats successfully able to bypass the email security systems that organizations’ have in place, effectively leaving them vulnerable and putting a lot of pressure on their employees to discern malicious emails,” Douglas said. “Cybercriminals will always look for new ways to bypass traditional defences and fool users. This means the industry must focus their efforts on investing in research & development, unified integrations and making it easier for users to be part of security defences, driving resilience against evolving attacks.”

No security filter can block every malicious email, and it only takes one successful phishing attack to compromise your organization. New-school security awareness training can help your employees resist these attacks, no matter what new tricks attackers come up with.

Mimecast has the story: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/10/08/1926189/0/en/New-Report-Finds-Staggering-Increase-in-Business-Email-Compromise-BEC-Attacks.html