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Security Operations · Intermediate

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

A fraud in which attackers impersonate or take over business email accounts to trick staff into sending money or data.

Definition

BEC uses spoofed lookalike domains or compromised legitimate mailboxes to request wire transfers, change vendor bank details or obtain W-2 data. It typically contains no malware, so it evades many filters. Out-of-band verification of payment changes and MFA on mailboxes are key controls. The FBI IC3 reports BEC among the costliest cybercrimes.

Example

An attacker in a compromised vendor mailbox emails a revised invoice with new bank account details.

Exam tip

Best control is a callback verification process for payment changes, not antivirus.

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