Cybercriminals are targeting business email

In the era of digitalisation and internet expansion, anyone who goes online encounters cybercrime sooner or later. The more potential victims have to lose, the greater the threat. Victims include ordinary people as well as major companies and organisations with an established market position and reputation. In the latter case, business mailboxes are often the target. What exactly are BEC, VEC and phishing attacks?

Increasing numbers of organisations around the world are falling victim to Business Email Compromise (BEC), an attack that compromises the security of their email systems. “BEC fraud usually involves attempts to convince a company, institution or municipality to transfer money to an account held by fraudsters,” explains Kamil Sadkowski from ESET, a company specialising in IT network security. Hackers break into email accounts of specific employees. After analysing the communication style and business content contained in previous messages, they impersonate the owner of the hacked mailbox to communicate with co-workers. Several attack scenarios are used, but each of them leads to a financial loss or theft of confidential data.