Business Email Compromise (BEC) netted cybercriminals $5.3 billion over the last 3 years as compared to $1-billion dollars for ransomware according to Cisco’s 2017 Midyear Cybersecurity Report. Michael Patterson, CEO at Plixer commented below.
Michael Patterson, CEO at Plixer:
“Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are a new twist on an old scam – getting hustled. BEC often goes unreported publicly. BEC attacks do not damage systems, but rather can trick an employee into transferring money at what seems to be the request of an executive. Since no personal data is compromised in such an attack, there is no legal responsibility for disclosure. Organizations fear the outside-in perception of incompetence and the possible negative impact that perception may have on customers and revenue streams. It is likely that the reported $5.3 Billion in losses is far less than the actual value. The miscreants behind these emails are basically clever con artists. Some of them may be government funded. Even the sharpest professionals should be constantly on guard as even they can fall victim to what could be an expensive mistake. To avoid being fooled by one of these cyber villains, security teams should be periodically emailing top executives with bogus emails which attempt to skillfully persuade these business decision makers to do something they ordinarily shouldn’t. Additional checks and balances involving other employees should also be put in place to avoid these high tech swindlers.”
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