{"id":40772,"date":"2021-05-06T16:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/security\/blog\/?p=93465"},"modified":"2021-05-06T16:00:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T16:00:07","slug":"business-email-compromise-how-microsoft-is-combating-this-costly-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/business-email-compromise-how-microsoft-is-combating-this-costly-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Business email compromise: How Microsoft is combating this costly threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amongst all cybercrime, phishing attacks continue to be the most prevalent today. With over 90 percent of attacks coming via email, it\u2019s important that every organization has a plan to prevent these threats from reaching users. At Microsoft, we\u2019re passionate about providing our customers with simplified and comprehensive protection against such threats with Defender for Office 365<\/a>. Earlier today, we announced that Microsoft is positioned as a leader<\/a> in The Forrester Wave\u2122: Email Security, Q2 2021. This represents the latest validation of our relentless effort, strategy, and focus to keep our customers secure and offer industry-leading protection against threats orchestrated over email and collaboration tools.<\/p>\n

One such threat that has been making waves recently is a class of phishing attacks called business email compromise (BEC). BEC is also proving to be one of the costliest flavors of attacks to organizations\u2014the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recorded almost 20,000 complaints of business email compromise in 2020 alone, with adjusted losses of over $1.8 billion according to their recent IC3 report<\/a>. What\u2019s more, BEC attacks continue to increase in scope and sophistication. No wonder then that business email compromise is a top concern for CISOs across the globe, especially in a climate where remote work and collaboration have increased significantly.<\/p>\n

We at Microsoft share that concern. And that is why we\u2019ve been working aggressively to protect customers by detecting and blocking such attacks through innovation in our products and by staying ahead of current and future threats through research. Additionally, through the Digital Crimes Unit at Microsoft, we have been working to disrupt and thwart such attack networks in partnership with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

What is business email compromise?<\/h2>\n

The term itself has seen an evolution over the years, but quite simply business email compromise (BEC) is a type of phishing attack that targets organizations with a view to steal money or sensitive information. At its core, it\u2019s a social engineering attack, where the attacker looks to dupe the target into believing that they are interacting with a trusted entity. Once they have deceived their target, the attacker proceeds to coax them to share valuable information or process a payment.<\/p>\n

These attacks are sometimes referred to as \u2018CxO Fraud\u2019 or \u2018vendor compromise,\u2019 taking the name of the entity the attacker is claiming to be.<\/p>\n

How are these attacks orchestrated?<\/h2>\n

BEC attacks are so dangerous and costly that we recently devoted an entire blog series<\/a> to this topic in an effort to raise visibility and help protect customers. The blog series covers the various types of tactics used in BEC attacks and the different levels of sophistication we see in these attacks. But I\u2019ll summarize some top takeaways here:<\/p>\n

Generally, the attacker uses one of the tactics below to dupe a target.<\/p>\n