BEC: Business Email Compromise
The costliest email fraud for businesses, sometimes without a single malicious attachment.
Hello, following our bank migration, please update the IBAN for the next transfer...
What are we talking about exactly ?
Business Email Compromise (BEC) is an email fraud that targets an organisation's financial flows or sensitive data. The attacker poses as an executive, an accountant, a lawyer or a trusted supplier.
No infected attachment, no suspicious link: just a credible message, in the right context, at the right time.
How it works
- 1Mapping
Identifying key people: CFO, accountant, executive assistant, the notary handling a case.
- 2Compromise or impersonation
Either an executive's mailbox is hacked, or the attacker forges a near-identical address.
- 3Seemingly legitimate request
An urgent transfer for a deal closing, an IBAN change on a pending invoice, sending a confidential document.
- 4Time pressure
The message arrives at the end of the day, during a busy period, with an argument of authority or urgency.
What the data tells us
Concrete examples
A fake email from the CEO asks the CFO for an urgent, confidential transfer to close an acquisition. The tone mimics their usual messages.
A recurring supplier announces a change of bank details for the next payment. The signature and footer are flawless.
What works, and what falls short
- Visual recognition of the sender: the mail client shows a name, not the real address.
- Verbal double-validation procedure: useful, but often bypassed under pressure.
- Strict policy: no IBAN change via email alone, without a secondary channel.
- Cryptographic proof of identity, visible in the mail client when reading the message.
How STEGA TRUST responds to this threat
With STEGA TRUST, every email sent by an executive, a firm or a practice carries a cryptographic signature tied to the organisation's real identity. This signature cannot be forged.
A fake email from the CEO, or a fake supplier, simply won't have the badge. The recipient sees it immediately.