Cyberattacks in 2019 Cost over $3.5 Billion in Victim Losses with Business Email Compromise Taking in Half

Feb 14, 2020 8:35:19 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The FBI’s annual year-in-review breaks down how 467,000 cyber attacks succeeded in taking consumers and businesses alike for billions of dollars.

FBI Internet Crime Report Released: The Evolving Threat and Importance of Reporting

Feb 12, 2020 10:42:48 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center released its 2019 Internet Crime Report, and by no surprise the bad guys and new scams show no signs of stopping anytime soon. Last year the ...

5 Tips to Prevent CEO Fraud

Jan 27, 2020 8:34:51 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Every day, employees are regularly receiving spoofed emails. Even C-level executives are receiving fraudulent requests to transfer money or provide sensitive information. This form of ...

Domain-Impersonation Increases by 400% as part of Conversational Hijacking Attacks

Jan 23, 2020 4:13:29 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The latest data from security vendor Barracuda suggests that attackers heavily rely on lookalike domains as part of BEC scams that can result in CEO fraud, malware infection, or ransom.

Hackers Request Aging Reports to Identify Their Next CEO Fraud Victims for Them

Jan 16, 2020 11:57:48 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Rather than attempt to hack user credentials and gain access to Accounts Payable applications, hackers are now impersonating the CFO and obtaining all the detail they need to launch a ...

Fast Work By Cops Recovers $710,000 After CEO Fraud Attack Hits Long Island County Government

Jan 14, 2020 6:33:48 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Finally some good news. Newsday reports that in record time, Nassau County, New York, recovered $710,000 that was transferred to scammers who were impersonating an existing county vendor.

Texas School District Loses $2.3 Million In BEC Scam

Jan 13, 2020 12:58:38 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Texas’s Manor Independent School District was the victim of a costly 2.3 million dollar Business Email Compromise (BEC) scam in November of 2019.

Business Email Compromise Attack Uses a “Man-in-the-Middle” Email Attack to Steal $1M

Jan 7, 2020 8:49:03 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Dubbed the “ultimate” Man-in-the-Middle attack by security researchers at Checkpoint, this CEO fraud attack shows how brazen cybercriminals can be – and how organizations need to be ...

[On-Demand Webinar] Business Email Compromise During Tax Season: Spotting and Defending Against Common BEC Tax Scams

Jan 6, 2020 9:44:01 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Tax season is upon us, which makes this prime time for hackers to target your unsuspecting users with the latest Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams. From evolved W2 fraud to ...

Financial Advisor Fined After Falling for BEC Scam

Dec 18, 2019 8:23:32 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined and temporarily suspended a financial advisor working for UBS after he was tricked into transferring $511,870 from a client’s ...

Big Bad BEC

Dec 9, 2019 10:15:46 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A Chinese venture capital firm was scammed out of $1 million in a noteworthy BEC (Business Email Compromise, or CEO fraud) scam, CyberScoop reports. The million dollars was supposed to be ...

Business Email Compromise Topples Over $26 Billion in Losses

Dec 2, 2019 7:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

This lucrative business of tricking companies into fraudulently transferring funds into cybercriminal-owned bank accounts is showing signs of growing. Scammers use many forms of attack to ...

It's Happening The World Over: $300K Lost To Phone Scammer

Nov 21, 2019 5:51:23 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A woman in Singapore lost $300,000 to a scammer posing as a Singtel customer service employee, according to the Straits Times. The scammer told the victim he would fix some problems with ...

IT Budgets Are on the Rise in Part Due to Organizational Concerns for Security

Nov 18, 2019 7:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Security remains a primary driver as organizations work to establish budgets that keep IT cutting edge, competitive, and secure, according to new data from Spiceworks.

Your CEO's Email May Be Hacked And You Don't Even Know It

Nov 14, 2019 7:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Hackers focused on CEO fraud (or Business Email Compromise - BEC) attacks often go to great lengths to hide the fact they have access to your CEO’s mailbox as part of a larger scam.

Here Is A New Term For Your Cybercrime Glossary: Vendor Email Compromise (VEC)

Nov 8, 2019 6:49:08 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Agari’s latest Email Fraud & Identity Deception Trends report highlights the growing threat of vendor email compromise (VEC), according to SecurityWeek. This is a variety of business ...

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

Oct 11, 2019 7:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Fake News and Deepfakes: Harmless Fun or the Future of Fraud?

Oct 10, 2019 12:35:09 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

We have all seen them. Fake news articles that get passed off as legit sources. Misleading memes. Entertaining videos that swap people’s faces. But what if these deception techniques were ...

CEO Fraud Attacks Now Use Deepfake Audio and AI to Mimic Executives Over the Phone

Sep 19, 2019 2:54:32 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

While deepfake video gets most of the attention on social media, it’s deepfake audio that is quickly becoming the cybercriminal’s tools of choice for committing fraud.

How Can You Check If Your Email Is Compromised?

Sep 16, 2019 6:52:18 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Rudy Friederich, a KnowBe4 friend at Marshal Security LLC sent me the following interesting tips related to finding out if you are the victim of Business Email Compromise. He wrote:

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