What is CEO Fraud/BEC?
Cyber attackers continue to evolve an email attack called CEO Fraud, or Business Email Compromise (BEC). These are targeted email attacks that trick their victim into taking an action they should not take. In most cases, the bad guys are after money. What makes these attacks so dangerous is cyber attackers research their victims before launching their attack. It is also very hard for security technologies to stop these attacks because there are no infected email attachments or malicious links to detect. Here is how the attack works.
The cyber attacker uses the Internet to research their intended victim and people their victim interacts with. For example, if they target you, they would research who your boss is at work or perhaps a real estate agent you are working with from home. The cyber attacker then crafts an email pretending to be one of these people and sends it to you. The email is urgent, requiring you to take an action right away, such as processing an invoice, changing who you make a payment to, or convincing you to reply with sensitive documents. The email works by pressuring you into doing what they want. Here are two examples of how just such an attack could work:
Wire Transfer: A cyber criminal is after money. They research the company you work for, such as identifying who works in accounts payable or anyone responsible for transferring funds. The criminals then craft and send an email to these individuals pretending to be their boss or a senior executive. The email tells them there is an emergency and money needs to be transferred right away t ..
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