Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Business Email Compromise

Business Email Compromise – Huge Damages, Easy Solution

Business Email Compromise (BEC) can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to companies of all shapes and sizes. BEC is so lucrative that hackers continue to use this attack method in larger and larger numbers.  CyberHoot produced this Infographic before the latest FBI study almost doubled the impact of BEC.  Last year, the FBI reported BEC cost businesses $26 Billion globally, while recently updating nearly doubling those astronomical numbers to $43 Billion annually!

CyberHoot views those numbers as shocking, sobering, and a tragedy when 99.9% of Email compromises can be prevented (Microsoft Infographic) when MFA is enabled.  Something simple and FREE could reduce a $43 Billion industry down to a $4.3 million dollar problem ($43B * 0.0001 = $4.3M).  The solution is free, so what are you waiting for?  Enable Multi-Factor Authentication on all your critical accounts (not just email) today.

Also consider signing up with CyberHoot to learn about, and implement, the best cybersecurity practices listed below.

CyberHoot Best practices:

1. Train your employees on the common attacks that are out there.  From weak passwords and password managers, to the importance of multi-factor authentication and how to spot phishing attacks.  Awareness is the key to defending your business.
2. Govern you employees with cybersecurity policies including Acceptable Use, Password, Information Handling and a Written Information Security Policy.
3. Establish cybersecurity best practice processes such as a Vulnerability Alert Management Process (VAMP) and a Cybersecurity Incident Management Process (CIMP) to guide and require action in the face of an emergency.  Then move on onboarding and offboarding processes, SaaS management processes, and 3rd party risk management.
4. Establish strong technical protections including: a Firewall, antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spam, multi-factor authentication on all critical accounts,  Enable full disk encryption, manage the keys carefully, and most importantly, adopt, train on and require all employees to use a Password Manager.
5. Test employees on how to spot and avoid phishing attacks.  CyberHoot has released a disruptive method of Phish Testing the fills in gaps in your employees knowledge without punishing them for failure.  Instead we reward them for success.  More info is available here.
6. Backup your data by following our 3-2-1 Backup methodology to ensure you can recover your business from a cybersecurity event.
7. In the modern Work-from-Home era, make sure you’re managing personal devices connecting to your network by validating their security (patching, antivirus, DNS protections) or prohibiting their use entirely.
8. If you haven’t had a risk assessment by a 3rd party in the last 2 years, you should have one now. Establishing a risk management framework in your organization is critical to addressing your most egregious risks with your finite time and money.
9. Buy Cyber-Insurance to protect you in a catastrophic failure situation. Cyber-Insurance is no different than Car, Fire, Flood, or Life insurance. It’s there when you need it most.

CyberHoot believes that for many small to medium sized businesses and MSPs, you can greatly improve your defenses and chances of not becoming another victim of cyberattack if you follow the advice above.

We hope you’re enjoying Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CAM).  Visit or subscribe to CyberHoot’s Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter pages to get daily updates throughout the month.

Additional Reading:

Business Email Compromise Statistics for 2021.  Source: FBI

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