What is BEC (Business Email Compromise)?
Phishing is a cyber threat in which fake emails from malicious actors pretending to be genuine mislead you into divulging confidential and crucial information. It has many advanced forms. Business Email Compromise (BEC) is an improved phishing method wherein the malicious actor impersonates or compromises a business executive’s email account to manipulate their subordinate into initiating a financial transaction or wire transfer or revealing sensitive information.
BEC is different from common phishing scams because the target or the employee receiving the business email has reasons to believe that the email source is genuine. On the other hand, phishing emails usually originate from an unknown source. The biggest BEC scam in history involves the swindling of around $121 million from Facebook and Google. If tech giants of such stature can be manipulated, smaller organizations are at a much higher risk.
