Best practices
There are several best practices that organizations can follow to help overcome threats associated with Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks:
- Employee Education and Awareness: Educate employees about BEC attacks, including the various techniques used by attackers, such as social engineering and phishing. Train them to be cautious with email communications, especially those that involve financial transactions or sensitive information. Encourage employees to verify any unusual or suspicious requests, especially those that come from unfamiliar email addresses or involve changes to payment instructions or sensitive data.
- Strong Authentication and Access Controls: Implement strong authentication measures, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) or two-factor authentication (2FA), to add an additional layer of security to email accounts and other critical systems. Limit access to sensitive accounts and systems only to authorized personnel and regularly review and update access controls to minimize the risk of unauthorized access.
- Robust Email Security: Deploy email security solutions, such as spam filters, anti-malware, and anti-phishing tools, to detect and block malicious emails, including those used in BEC attacks. Regularly update these solutions to ensure they are effective against the latest threats.
- Verification of Payment Requests: Establish strict verification processes for any requests involving payments or changes to financial information. Require multiple levels of approval and verification, such as in-person or phone verification, for high-value or sensitive transactions. Avoid solely relying on email communications for financial transactions, and always verify any changes to payment instructions through trusted and verified channels.
- Vigilance in Detecting Spoofed or Suspicious Emails: Train employees to carefully review email sender information, including the email address and domain, and to be vigilant in detecting spoofed or suspicious emails. Look for signs of email spoofing, such as slight variations in email addresses, misspelled domains, or unusual email content or formatting.