BEC and the Underworld's Resources

Sep 2, 2021 8:47:27 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Researchers at Intel 471 have observed cybercriminals outsourcing talent for business email compromise (BEC) attacks. This tactic lowers the bar of entry for BEC attacks, which are ...

BEC Attacks Are Targeting Lower-Level Employees

Aug 5, 2021 8:48:30 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new report from Barracuda found that most business email compromise (BEC) attacks are now targeting employees who aren’t in executive or financial roles.

Microsoft Takes Down Homoglyph Domains

Jul 22, 2021 10:44:51 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Microsoft has taken legal action to shut down eighteen domains that were being used in business email compromise (BEC) attacks. The sites in question used homoglyphs to impersonate ...

Spear Phishing Impersonation Attacks Take on New Tactics to Become More Convincing and Effective

Jun 30, 2021 4:31:09 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

As part of Business Email Compromise attacks, spear phishing now plays a material role, with impersonation sitting firmly at the core of their social engineering tactics… in more ways ...

Business Email Compromise Attacks Are Evolving, Becoming More Convincing and More Expensive

May 28, 2021 9:51:22 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The “business” of BEC is becoming increasingly more lucrative for cybercriminals, as they develop new ways to defraud individuals and organizations of their money.

A Popular Fraud Combo is Back: Elon Musk and Bitcoin

May 26, 2021 1:56:37 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Researchers at Bitdefender warn that cybercriminals continue to impersonate Elon Musk in Bitcoin scams. One campaign that started on May 15 involved sending thousands of emails telling ...

Wine-Themed Phishing Attacks Have Turned Sour During the Pandemic

May 11, 2021 12:45:30 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Scammers took advantage of people’s desire to order wine online during the pandemic, Decanter reports. Researchers at Recorded Future disclosed in a recent report that wine-related ...

Huge Business Email Compromise Campaign Targets More Than 120 Organizations

May 11, 2021 12:00:00 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

According to Bleeping Computer, Microsoft reported that a large business email compromise (BEC) campaign has targeted dozens of organizations. The industries targeted varied from real ...

Cybercrime Skyrocketed in the US by 55%

Apr 1, 2021 8:58:39 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

According to data released by StockApps, the annual loss from any type of cybercrime in the US reached $4.2 billion in 2020. This turns into billions of dollars lost, and a 55% increase ...

Another Tax Season, Another Opportunity for Scams

Mar 18, 2021 9:30:45 AM By Erich Kron

It’s the start of tax season. This is the time of year when we collect our receipts and tax forms and hope for a nice big refund from the U.S. government. Unfortunately, cybercriminals ...

FBI Releases the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2020 Internet Crime Report, Losses Exceed $4.2 Billion

Mar 18, 2021 5:58:13 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has released their annual report. The 2020 Internet Crime Report includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime—an ...

[On-Demand Webinar] Avoiding Business Email Compromise Phishing Scams During Tax Season

Mar 15, 2021 8:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Taxes are unavoidable, and unfortunately, so are the annual tax-related phishing scams. This year, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to keep people working from home, cybercriminals ...

Think Your Cyber Insurance is Going to Cover that $6 Million in Cyber Fraud? Think Again.

Mar 5, 2021 4:05:06 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The latest tale of an organization falling victim to a business email compromise attack on their credit card processor highlights how very specific the scenario needs to be to see a ...

1 in 4 Business Email Compromise Attacks Use Lookalike Domains to Trick Victims

Mar 5, 2021 4:02:18 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The latest Data on BEC scams shows how the bad guys are using a mix of gmail accounts, increases in stolen wire transfers, and a shift to payroll diversions to trick you out of your money.

Cannabis Company Loses Millions in BEC Scam

Feb 10, 2021 8:32:27 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Australian medicinal cannabis company Cann Group has lost $3.6 million in a business email compromise (BEC) attack, Stockhead reports. The company had thought it was paying an unnamed ...

BEC Attacks Nearly Doubled in 2020

Dec 29, 2020 8:25:24 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new report from Barracuda Networks found that business email compromise (BEC) attacks have nearly doubled over the past year. These attacks made up 12% of all spear phishing attacks in ...

Data Breaches Are Expected to Decline While Ransomware and BEC Gain Steam

Dec 14, 2020 8:27:05 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new report from the Identity Theft Research Center discusses which cybersecurity attacks will be most impactful next year as part of the ITRC’s 2021 predictions.

BEC Scam Litigation Demonstrates How Your Company Can Be Out $500,000

Dec 4, 2020 11:12:30 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The case of Arrow Truck Sales Inc. v. Top Quality Truck & Equipment tells a familiar tale, but provides insight into how the law interprets cases and who’s at fault.

[HEADS UP] FBI Warns US Companies of BEC Scammers

Dec 1, 2020 1:49:29 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The Federal Bureau Investigation is issuing warnings to US companies that are taking advantage of email auto-forwarding. If successful, this would fall right into the trap of a business ...

[Heads-Up] A Hacker Is Selling Access To The Email Accounts Of Hundreds Of C-Level Executives

Nov 27, 2020 11:52:05 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

ZDNet's Zero Day column just reported one of the best reasons why you should step your users through new-school security awareness training yet:

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