BEC Scams Have Caused $55 Billion in Losses Over the Past Ten Years
Business email compromise (BEC) attacks have caused more than $55 billion in losses between 2013 and 2023, according to an advisory from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“The BEC scam continues to target small local businesses to larger corporations, and personal transactions while evolving in their techniques to access those business or personal accounts,” the FBI says.
“Between December 2022 and December 2023, there was a 9% increase in identified global exposed losses. In 2023, the IC3 saw a growth in BEC reporting where funds were sent directly to a financial institution housing custodial accounts held by third-party payment processors, or peer-to-peer payment processors, and cryptocurrency exchanges which directly contributed to the increase in global exposed losses.”
The FBI notes that BEC is a global problem, affecting victims “in all 50 states and 186 countries, with over 140 countries receiving fraudulent transfers.” The Bureau outlines the following best practices to help organizations avoid falling for these attacks:
- Use secondary channels and/or two-factor authentication to verify requests for changes in account information
- Use unique passwords/passphrases. Make sure to use a unique password for every online service you use and try to change your passwords/passphrases periodically
- Ensure the URL in emails is associated with the business/individual it claims to be from
- Be alert to hyperlinks that may contain misspellings of the actual domain name
- Refrain from supplying login credentials or personal identifiable information (PII) of any sort via email. Be aware that many emails requesting your PII may appear to be legitimate
- Verify the email address used to send emails, especially when using a mobile or handheld device, by ensuring the sender’s address appears to match who it is coming from
- Ensure the settings in employees’ computers are enabled to allow full email extensions to be viewed
- Monitor your personal financial accounts on a regular basis for irregularities, such as missing deposits
KnowBe4 empowers your workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Over 70,000 organizations worldwide trust the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk.
The FBI has the story.
Free Phishing Security Test
Would your users fall for convincing phishing attacks? Take the first step now and find out before bad actors do. Plus, see how you stack up against your peers with phishing Industry Benchmarks. The Phish-prone percentage is usually higher than you expect and is great ammo to get budget.
Here’s how it works:
- Immediately start your test for up to 100 users (no need to talk to anyone)
- Select from 20+ languages and customize the phishing test template based on your environment
- Choose the landing page your users see after they click
- Show users which red flags they missed, or a 404 page
- Get a PDF emailed to you in 24 hours with your Phish-prone % and charts to share with management
- See how your organization compares to others in your industry
PS: Don’t like to click on redirected buttons? Cut & Paste this link in your browser: https://info.knowbe4.com/phishing-security-test-partner?partnerid=001a000001lWEoJAAW