How to Prevent Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks

In recent years, Business Email Compromise (BEC) has surged, with losses reaching staggering heights. In 2023 alone, businesses in the United States reported losses close to $2.76 billion due to these scams. This isn’t just an alarming statistic—it’s a wake-up call highlighting the vulnerability of businesses, NGOs and even government agencies to these sophisticated cyber deception tactics.

Imagine this: you’re settling into your morning routine at the office, coffee in hand, when an email from your boss pops up asking for an urgent wire transfer. Without a second thought, you’re about to comply—because, hey, it’s the boss. But then, something feels off. Welcome to the sneaky world of Business Email Compromise (BEC), where cyber tricksters impersonate VIPs to swindle companies out of their hard-earned cash. It’s like finding a worm in your apple; utterly unexpected and unwelcome.

Now, if you think this sounds like a problem reserved for the “other guys,” think again. BEC attacks have scammed organizations out of billions globally, and they’re not slowing down. But here’s the good news: despite the grim numbers, there are actionable steps that organizations like yours can take to protect themselves from this growing threat.

This article aims to cut through the complexity and provide a clear, actionable guide to building up your defenses against business email compromise. From understanding the ‘how’ of these attacks to implementing robust security measures, we’ll equip you with the knowledge you need to protect your business’s reputation and financial wellbeing.

As we dive in, remember that preventing BEC scams isn’t just about deploying the latest tech solutions—it’s about fostering a culture of awareness and vigilance within your entire organization.

How to Identify BEC Scams

In identifying BEC scams, vigilance is key. Employees must be trained to spot domain name spoofing, where attackers mimic legitimate email addresses, and display name spoofing, which uses a known executive’s name to deceive. Other common tactics include lookalike domain spoofing and the use of compromised email accounts. Additionally, urgent financial requests, changes to payment details, and requests for sensitive information should always be treated with suspicion. Regular training and a culture of security awareness can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to these scams. For a deeper dive into recognizing these threats, read more about identifying BEC scams.

How to Prevent Business Email Compromise Attacks

Use Your Company’s Domain Name for Email

Having a unique domain name for your business isn’t just about creating a professional image; it’s your first line of defense against Business Email Compromise (BEC). It sets a solid foundation for your digital presence, ensuring that every email sent builds trust and credibility, all the while making it much more difficult for cybercriminals to impersonate your business, brand, or employees. Avoid using free, web-based email services for official communication, as this can make it easier for attackers to spoof your email addresses.

Register Similar Domain Names

Cybercriminals are crafty, often using domain names that are slight misspellings of your actual domain to fool your partners and customers. Proactively registering these variations can protect your brand from being spoofed. If setting up and securing staff email accounts on your custom domain is fortifying your business’ digital position, you can think of taking similar domain names off the market as securing the perimeter so impersonators can’t get as close.

The obvious variations include:

• .net (yourdomainname.net)
• .com (yourdomainname.com)
• .org (yourdomainname.org)
• Country specific domain extensions (like ‘.co.uk’ for the United Kingdom, ‘.com.au’ for Australia, ‘.ca’ for Canada, etc.)
• Common misspellings of your domain name
• Lookalike domains like the Google example given in the pro-tip above.

Regularly Renew Domain Names

Keep your domain name registrations up to date, and registered as far in advance as you can justify. Allowing a domain to expire can lead to it being snapped up by bad actors, who can then use it to impersonate your business. Regular renewals ensure that your domain(s) remain under your control, preventing impersonators from taking over your online identity and using it to scam your staff, customers, vendors, or business partners.

Invest in Your IT Department

A robust IT department is crucial for identifying and mitigating the risks of BEC scams. Investing in your IT team’s capabilities means you have experts continuously monitoring threats, implementing security measures, and educating your staff on the latest cyber threats.

Ensure Software Is Always Updated

Cybersecurity is a race against time, with attackers constantly finding new vulnerabilities to exploit. Keeping your software updated is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to protect your organization. Regular updates close security loopholes, making it significantly harder for attackers to breach your systems. Be careful though, as there are some risks in being amongst the first to adopt new updates, as new bugs and vulnerabilities may arise. Be sure to research the tools you’re updating and the teams behind them.

Email Rules, Settings, and Security 

Safeguarding your email communication is not just about preventing spam; it’s a critical part of your cybersecurity strategy. Here’s are some practical steps for how you can tighten up your email security: 

Implement Email Authentication Protocols

Start by setting up DMARC, SPF, and DKIM for your email domains. These protocols help verify that the emails sent from your domain are authentic and significantly reduce the risk of spoofing and phishing attacks. Setting these up will require editing your website’s DNS records. Think of these as digital signatures that confirm your emails are genuinely from you. 

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance):

DMARC ensures that legitimate emails are properly authenticated against established DKIM and SPF standards, and that any fraudulent activity appearing to come from your domain is blocked. Implementing DMARC involves setting up DNS records that tell receiving email servers how to handle unauthenticated emails from your domain, such as reporting them or rejecting them outright. 

SPF (Sender Policy Framework):

SPF allows email domain owners to specify which email servers are permitted to send email on behalf of their domain. This is done by adding a specific SPF record to your DNS settings. Proper SPF setup helps prevent spammers from sending messages with forged “From” addresses at your domain. 

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail):

DKIM provides an encryption key and digital signature that verifies that an email message was not forged or altered. Implementing DKIM involves adding a digital signature to the headers of email messages. This signature can be validated against a public cryptographic key in the organization’s DNS records. 

Flag Emails from Unknown Domains 

Configure your email system to flag or mark emails that come from outside your organization. This could involve adding a header message to emails coming from outside your network making it easier for employees to recognize external emails at a glance. This reminds them to treat these emails with caution, reducing the chance they click on or respond to something malicious, such as spoofed impersonation domains that impersonate your vendors or customers. 

Utilize Anti-Spam and Anti-Malware Tools 

Most email services come with built-in anti-spam and anti-malware filters. Make sure these features are enabled and configured correctly to filter out potential threats before they reach your inbox. These filters scan incoming emails for malicious content and quarantine suspicious emails. Regular updates are crucial, as threat actors are constantly working to adapt their strategies to bypass these front-line filters. As such, most organizations are best-off setting these filters up so that they update automatically. 

Control Creation of New Email Rules 

Cybercriminals can, and very likely will, create or modify email rules if they gain unauthorized access to one of your team member’s accounts. These rule changes can automatically delete, redirect, or forward emails sent to or from an email address. For instance, emails sent from your billing department might be intercepted by scammers who will then send a modified invoice to your customers with modified payment details, or an invoice sent to you from a supplier might be deleted from your inbox after being forwarded to the hacker who will alter the invoice with their own bank information. 

Implementing policies that limit the ability to create new rules and that require IT department approval for any changes made to email rules can adds an extra layer of security and can prevent harmful manipulation of mail handling within your organization. This can usually be controlled through your email server or cloud email service’s administrative settings. 

Disable Automatic Forwarding to External Email Addresses

Automatic forwarding can lead to sensitive information being sent out of your network without oversight. In some cases, or for some team members, you may want to disable this feature to keep your data within a controlled environment. This acts as an especially useful safeguard in the event the above email rule policies are bypassed. 

Activate Alerts for Suspicious Activity

Set up alerts for unusual activities, such as login attempts from new locations or multiple failed login attempts, to quickly respond to potential security breaches. Many email services offer security features that alert administrators to such activities, which could indicate a compromised account. You can get even more specific with these settings, so that any staff member who shouldn’t be emailing a vendor or customer’s go-to point of contact for payment/invoicing will raise a warning if they try, or even have their email out-right blocked or marked for approval. 

Review Legacy Email Protocols

Older email protocols might not support modern security standards. Evaluate and update these protocols to ensure they align with today’s security best practices. For protocols like IMAP and SMTP, you may want to ensure that encryption is enforced (using IMAPS and SMTPS, or STARTTLS) to protect email data in transit. Consider using more secure alternatives or additional security measures where necessary. Alternatively, you may find that IMAP and SMTP are not the best fit for you, in which case you can disable them org-wide. 

Use Email Encryption

Enhance the security of your emails by enabling encryption, which secures your messages both in transit and at rest. Use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the email path, ensuring that intercepted emails remain unreadable. For sensitive information, End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) provides a higher security level by encrypting messages from the sender to the recipient, making them accessible only to the intended parties. Regularly review and update encryption settings to maintain the highest security standards. 

Standardize Email Client Versions

Discrepancies between different versions of email clients can lead to security vulnerabilities. Create a policy for updating email clients to the latest version and ensure compliance across the organization. This might involve setting up automatic updates or regular checks to confirm that all devices are using the same, secure version of the email client. 

Log and Monitor Email System Changes

Keeping a log of changes to email settings and mailbox logins for at least 90 days can help you spot unauthorized changes or access. Ensure these logs are monitored for any unauthorized changes. In case of suspicious activities, these logs can provide critical information for identifying and mitigating potential breaches. Depending on your organization and its needs, you may want to consider backing up these logs so that you maintain historical records beyond the 90-day window. Logs like these will be one of the first places that law enforcement agents and any business email compromise investigators will look should you find yourself the victim of a BEC attack/scam. 

Cybersecurity Best Practices for BEC Prevention

Require Strong, Unique Passwords for Each Account

Strong, complex passwords are the bedrock of account security. Encourage or enforce a password policy that requires a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters, avoiding easily guessable passwords such as that include “123456”, “qwerty” or “password”. Additionally, ensure that passwords are unique to each account to prevent a single breach from compromising multiple systems. Similarly, users should not reuse any passwords they have or currently used for any personal account, like social media, their own email, or for online shopping.

All members of your organization should be educated on the basics of Password security, including common trends in passwords that hackers are very much aware of and skilled at taking advantage of.

I can’t tell you how horrifying it is when I’m explaining password security to a friend, family member, or colleague and I crack a joke about how common it is for people to make their password “pet or child’s name” + “the year the user was born” and the person I’m speaking to goes pale and sheepishly admits that they have done that – or still do! Potentially worse than that are the reactions I see when speaking to professionals and business owners. Simply swap the above example for “Business name” + “current or previous year” (and maybe + “!”) and you’d be shocked by how nervous they become.

Force Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Email Accounts

MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring two (2FA) or more verification methods to gain access to an account, making it considerably more difficult for hackers to gain unauthorized access to accounts within your organization. Typically, this takes the form of a Password, plus one or more other authentication methods. We would advise against setting the only other authentication method as a text or email, as these can be spoofed or hijacked more easily than a purpose-built authentication app, like authy.com. Enabling MFA across all accounts, especially those with access to sensitive information, is a critical step in securing your organization’s digital assets.

Pro-Tip: MFA isn’t just for email accounts. Many tools, platforms, and websites offer users the ability to set up MFA. Where possible, all members of your organization should be required to set up MFA for as many of these services as they are able. This is especially relevant for any accounts that have access to billing, client information, sensitive data, or the ability to place orders with vendors.

Did You Know?

Two or More Verification and Authentication Factors successfully stop 99.9% attempts at unauthorized access.

Pro Tip: Don’t just “enable” MFA/2FA, force it!

MS Office 365 Admins can force MFA here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/security-and-compliance/set-up-multi-factor-authentication

Google Workspace / G Suite Admins go here:

https://admin.google.com/ac/security/2sv

 Deploy Anti Malware Software

Deploy robust anti-malware solutions on all devices to detect and block malware and malicious software and email attachments that bad actors may deploy against you as part of their BEC attack. Regular updates are vital to protect against the latest threats and vulnerabilities.

Harden Your Network’s Security Infrastructure

A comprehensive approach to cybersecurity involves more than just safeguarding individual accounts. It means securing the entire network infrastructure against potential intrusions. This includes firewalls, secure Wi-Fi networks, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and regular security audits to identify and address vulnerabilities. By creating a strong security perimeter, you minimize the chances of attackers gaining access to your network and launching BEC or other cyber attacks.

Business Email Compromise Education and Training

Relying solely on cybersecurity settings and your IT department to shield your business from email scams is like installing solid steel doors, bulletproof windows, and a top-notch security system, but forgetting to close the front door and arm the system every time you leave the office. These tools are essential, yes, but they’re not foolproof. Cybercriminals are crafty, constantly devising new ways to slip past digital defenses. That’s why it’s crucial to layer these defenses with something even more potent: informed, vigilant humans.

To build this first layer of defense, start by ensuring everyone in your organization understands what BEC is and the common signs of threat actor attempts. Regularly update your team about the latest cybersecurity threats and encourage them to adopt a questioning attitude towards unexpected or unusual email requests, especially those involving money or sensitive information.

Educate Everyone Involved

BEC doesn’t just target the top executives; it can involve anyone in your organization, as well as clients and vendors. Extending your educational efforts beyond your employees to include these external stakeholders multiplies your defense against these scams. Create simple, clear guides or webinars detailing common BEC tactics and distribute them to your wider network. Encourage open discussions about any suspicious communications and make it clear that it’s always better to double-check than to fall victim to a scam. If you have managers or a boss who are characterized as impatient, let them know that staff need to feel safe when verifying suspicious requests.

Conduct Regular BEC Drills

Just like fire drills prepare everyone for a potential fire, BEC drills can prepare your team for attempted email scams. Simulate realistic BEC scenarios based on real-life cases to test your team’s responses. Afterward, discuss what was done well and where improvements could be made. These drills should be regular—quarterly, if possible—to keep everyone sharp, aware, and on the lookout.

Periodic Phishing Tests

Complement BEC drills with periodic phishing tests. Send out fake phishing emails of varying sophistication levels to all employees to see who bites. Those who do should receive additional training, but remember, the goal is education, not punishment. Tracking the results over time can also provide valuable insights into how your team’s awareness is improving and where vulnerabilities still lie.

Develop Policies for Payment Approvals

Dual Approval for Money Transfers

Introducing a dual-approval process for all financial transactions is a simple yet effective way to prevent unauthorized transfers. This means that any money transfer request must be validated and approved by at least two employees before it can be processed. Ideally, one of these individuals should be from the finance department, and the other should have a comprehensive understanding of the company’s financial dealings. Implementing this policy creates a built-in checkpoint that can catch fraudulent requests before any money changes hands.

Require Payment Confirmation Through Multiple Channels

Relying solely on email for transaction confirmations is risky. It’s essential to verify significant transactions through a second, independent communication channel. This could be a phone call, a video chat, or even a face-to-face confirmation for critical transactions. For instance, if you receive an email request for a wire transfer, follow up with a direct phone call to the requestor using a number you have on file, not one provided in the potentially fraudulent email. This method ensures that you’re communicating with the genuine requestor and not a scammer. 

Standardize Verification Procedures

For requests involving sensitive information or significant financial transactions, establish a standard operating procedure (SOP) that outlines the steps for verification. This SOP should include checking the request against known schedules (e.g., expected invoices), verifying the requestor’s identity through pre-established security questions or codes, and cross-referencing the request details with internal records. By standardizing these practices, employees will have a clear guide on how to proceed when they encounter a request that requires additional scrutiny.

Promote Vigilance and Verification

Promoting vigilance and a culture of verification within your organization is vital in the fight against Business Email Compromise (BEC)mu. It’s not just about having the right tools and protocols in place but also about encouraging a mindset where employees feel empowered and obliged to scrutinize and verify requests, especially those that seem out of the ordinary. Let’s break down how to implement these practices effectively:

Independent Verification for Unusual Requests

Whenever an unusual request for money or sensitive information arrives via email, the first step should be to verify the sender’s identity through an alternate form of communication. This means ignoring any contact information provided in the suspicious email. Instead, use previously known phone numbers or internal directories to contact the requester directly. A simple phone call asking, “Did you send me an email requesting a wire transfer?” can often immediately confirm whether a request is legitimate.

Confirm Payment Method Changes Securely

Scammers often attempt to divert funds by requesting changes to payment methods or account details, the recipient accounts will often belong to “money mules” and victims themselves. Any such request should be met with a strict verification process. Use established, secure channels to confirm these changes directly with the financial institution or the vendor. This might involve calling the known contact number for your vendor or visiting your bank in person. It’s crucial that these verifications are not based on information provided in the potentially fraudulent email but on trusted contact details you have on file.

 Encourage Challenging Rushed Payment Requests

In many organizations, requests from senior executives are often rushed through due to their perceived urgency. This is precisely what BEC scammers exploit when they impersonate CEOs or other high-level executives. Cultivating a culture where it’s acceptable, even expected, to question the authenticity of high-priority requests is crucial. Train employees to view such requests with a healthy dose of skepticism and to follow established verification processes, no matter who the request appears to be from. Emphasize that it’s better to delay a transaction temporarily than to rush through a potentially fraudulent one.

How to Best Promote this Culture

Regular Training: Incorporate these verification steps into regular security awareness training sessions.

Open Communication Channels: Ensure that employees know who to contact for verification and encourage them to report any suspicious activity without fear of reprisal.

Lead by Example: Management should actively participate in and advocate for these verification processes, demonstrating their importance to the entire organization.

Support Security-Consciousness in your Team

Creating a security-conscious culture means cultivating an environment where every employee plays an active role in the company’s cybersecurity efforts. Below are a few ways you can achieve this in your organization.

Empowering Employees to Act

Instilling a sense of responsibility in your employees isn’t enough, they need to feel as though taking action is their responsibility, and that they are supported in taking action when they notice suspicious emails and activity. This means providing clear guidelines on what constitutes suspicious behavior and establishing simple, straightforward processes for reporting these activities. Encourage reporting by ensuring there are no negative repercussions for employees who act in good faith. Instead, consider implementing a rewards system for those who successfully identify threats. This approach reinforces the idea that security is everyone’s responsibility and that every employee is a critical part of the organization’s defense mechanisms.

Adapt to Evolving Threats Through Ongoing Education

The cybercrime landscape is constantly changing, with attackers continuously developing new methods and techniques to defraud your business and the businesses you work with. To keep pace, organizations must commit to ongoing education and awareness programs. This could include regular training sessions, cybersecurity newsletters, and updates during team meetings about the latest threats and prevention strategies. Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning and curiosity about cybersecurity will help employees stay ahead of potential threats. Additionally, consider bringing in external experts for seminars or workshops to provide fresh perspectives and up-to-date knowledge.

Address the Risks of Oversharing Online

In today’s interconnected world, the boundary between personal and professional lives often blurs, especially on social media platforms. While these digital spaces allow for networking and engagement, they also pose significant risks, particularly when it comes to Business Email Compromise (BEC) attempts. Understanding and mitigating these risks is crucial.

Limit Personal Information Available Online

Every piece of personal or corporate information shared online can potentially be used by cyber attackers to craft more convincing BEC attempts. Publicly available information, such as job titles, work anniversaries, and project involvements, can be pieced together to impersonate executives or fabricate scenarios that seem plausible to unwary employees.

To safeguard against these threats, conduct an audit of the information your organization and its members share online. Encourage employees to adjust their privacy settings to limit what’s visible to the public or to unknown connections. Additionally, create guidelines about what company information can be shared online and provide training on how to identify and protect sensitive data.

Practical Tips for Safe Sharing on Social Media

Evaluate Before You Share: Before posting anything online, consider whether the information could be used maliciously. Ask yourself if the details about your work or personal life need to be public or could be better shared in a more controlled setting.

Use Privacy Settings: Most social media platforms offer extensive privacy settings that allow you to control who sees your posts. Familiarize yourself with these settings and use them to limit your posts’ visibility to trusted individuals.

Educate on the Risks: Regularly inform your team about the types of information attackers look for and how seemingly innocent details can be exploited in BEC schemes. Share examples of how information shared online has led to successful attacks to illustrate the point.

Promote a Culture of Caution: Encourage employees to approach friend requests and messages from unknown individuals with skepticism, especially if they claim to be recruiters, potential clients, or others looking for professional connections.

Understand How Scammers Manipulate Their Victims

The success of Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams often hinges not on sophisticated hacking techniques, but on the psychological manipulation of targets. Understanding the psychological tactics used by attackers can significantly bolster your organization’s defenses by equipping employees with the knowledge to recognize and resist emotional manipulation.

Understanding Social Engineering

Social engineering is at the heart of BEC scams. Attackers use it to exploit human psychology, manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security. Key to this approach is the manipulation of trust and authority—attackers often pose as high-ranking company officials or trusted external partners to create a sense of urgency or fear, prompting hasty actions without proper verification.

Common Psychological Triggers in Social Engineering:

Urgency: Attackers create a sense of urgency to rush the victim into making decisions without due diligence. Phrases like “immediate action required” or “urgent wire transfer needed” are red flags.

Authority: Impersonating CEOs, managers, or known business contacts, scammers leverage the perceived authority of these positions to intimidate victims into compliance.

Familiarity: By using details harvested from social media or previous correspondence, attackers create a false sense of familiarity, making their requests seem more legitimate. Another way these scammers use familiarity is by looking to past payment requests to craft an email, payment page, and or invoice that looks nearly (or exactly) identical to those your team usually receives from the companies you do business with. When a request for payment looks, reads, and feels the same as every other week, it’s easy to accept it as legitimate and fulfil it, not realizing that it’s an imposter trying to scam you out of a substantial amount of money.

Emphasize the Importance of Quick Thinking and Careful Action

Encourage employees to take a step back and critically analyze urgent requests. Fast, emotional reactions are what attackers count on; slow, rational decision-making processes are the enemy of successful BEC scams.

Developing a BEC Incident Response Strategy

Despite your best efforts to prevent Business Email Compromise (BEC) through robust security measures and employee education, the unfortunate reality is that attacks can still occur. Recognizing the signs of an attempted BEC scam and taking immediate action is crucial to give your business the best chance at justice, recovery of stolen funds, or even compensation for the damage to your business’ reputation. Developing a robust response strategy is essential for any organization looking to protect its interests in the wake of such an incident. Here’s how you can formulate a response plan, including partnering with a specialized firm like Rexxfield for expert assistance.

Immediate Steps

Identify and Contain: As soon as a BEC attempt is detected, immediately identify the extent of the breach. Determine which accounts are compromised and take steps to secure them. This may involve changing passwords, revoking access tokens, and disabling compromised accounts.

Rexxfield offers 1st Response loss mitigation services, we can usually act faster and more effectively than law enforcement to interrupt the money laundering.

Assessment: Conduct a thorough assessment to understand the scope of the attack. Determine what information was accessed or stolen and the potential impact on your organization.

Notification: Inform relevant stakeholders about the breach. This includes internal teams, affected clients or partners, and, where applicable, law enforcement agencies.

Engaging Expert Assistance

In the complex and often murky waters of cybercrime, having an expert by your side can make a significant difference in navigating the aftermath of a BEC attack. This is where a company like Rexxfield comes into play.

Rexxfield’s Role: Specializing in cyber investigation and digital forensics, Rexxfield can be an invaluable partner in your response strategy. Their expertise in tracking down cybercriminals and gathering evidence can be critical in mitigating damage and pursuing legal action.

Act Fast: Reach out to Rexxfield or a similar cyber forensics firm as soon as possible after identifying a BEC incident. The sooner experts are involved, the better your chances of recovering lost funds and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Recovery and Justice: With our specialized skills, Rexxfield can assist in efforts to recover stolen assets and provide the necessary evidence to support legal claims against the attackers.

For detailed support in developing a BEC incident response strategy and understanding how Rexxfield can assist, consider reaching out to us directly.

Taking Action Against Business Email Compromise

Implementing the strategies discussed—from strengthening technical defenses to fostering a vigilant organizational culture—is just the beginning. To truly stay ahead of BEC scammers, organizations must embrace the concept of feedback loops, constantly evolving their defenses based on new information and experiences.

Continuous Improvement

Feedback loops are systems that allow for continuous learning and improvement based on outcomes. In the context of BEC prevention, this means regularly reviewing the effectiveness of your security measures, learning from any incidents that occur, and adapting your strategies accordingly.

Regular Reviews and Adjustments

Schedule Regular Security Assessments: Periodically review your cybersecurity protocols and practices to identify any gaps or areas for improvement. This includes revisiting your email authentication setups, verifying the effectiveness of your training programs, and ensuring that your anti-phishing measures are up to date.

Learn from Near-Misses and Breaches: If your organization experiences a BEC attempt—successful or not—conduct a thorough analysis to understand how it happened and why. Use these insights to strengthen your defenses and prevent similar incidents in the future.

Solicit Feedback from Employees: Encourage employees to provide feedback on the organization’s cybersecurity practices, especially after training sessions or security drills. Their insights can be invaluable in identifying weaknesses or areas that need further clarification.

Stay Informed and Proactive

Keep Ahead of BEC Trends: Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and so are BEC scams. Stay informed about the latest BEC tactics and trends by subscribing to cybersecurity newsletters, attending webinars, and participating in industry forums.

Adapt and Evolve: Use the knowledge gained from ongoing education and feedback to continuously refine and enhance your cybersecurity measures. This proactive stance ensures your organization remains a difficult target for scammers.

Ultimately, the objective is to create an environment where cybersecurity is ingrained in the organizational culture—a place where every employee plays an active role in safeguarding the company’s digital assets. Implementing feedback loops is critical to achieving this goal, as it ensures that your defenses remain effective and responsive to the changing tactics of cybercriminals.