Business email compromise scams have been reported in all 50 states and in 150 countries

Global losses from business email compromise scams, a highly sophisticated form of phishing, grew by 136% between December 2016 and May 2018 and now exceed $12 billion, according to a public service announcement released by the FBI.

What Is a Business Email Compromise Scam?

A business email compromise (BEC) – also known as an email account compromise (EAC) or “CEO fraud” – is a form of spear phishing that primarily targets businesses or individuals who perform wire transfer payments. Some BEC variations seek employee tax data or other personal identifying information, such as a very large business email compromise scheme that targeted HR and payroll professionals in 2016.

Business email compromise schemes are far more sophisticated than regular phishing due to their highly targeted nature and the reconnaissance involved. BEC scammers don’t blindly send out emails; they do their homework, scouring company websites and social media profiles to gather information on specific targets.

A business email compromise scam generally unfolds as follows:

1. A victim receives an email that appears to be from a high-level company executive, company attorney, or business partner. However, the email address has been spoofed – or the sender got hold of a high-ranking user’s email login credentials, usually through a separate phishing scheme.
2. The email includes an urgent request for a wire transfer or, alternatively, employee payroll information or other personal data. The victim is implored to act immediately; for example, an email may claim that the money is for a seriously past-due invoice.
3. The email may even be followed by a phone call to further bolster legitimacy.
4. Thinking the request is legitimate, the victim sends the wire transfer/information.

While business email compromise scams can hit any industry sector, the FBI reports that the real estate industry, including real estate agents, title companies, law firms, and even buyers and sellers, has been heavily targeted in recent years. From 2015 to 2017, the real estate industry saw a 1,100% rise in the number of reported BEC incidents and a 2,200% increase in BEC losses. These BEC scams are a bit different than the scenario described above in that they don’t involve fraudulent requests for payment and instead seek to redirect legitimately owed funds to fraudulent accounts. The FBI elaborates:

Victims most often report a spoofed e-mail being sent or received on behalf of one of these real estate transaction participants with instructions directing the recipient to change the payment type and/or payment location to a fraudulent account. The funds are usually directed to a fraudulent domestic account which quickly disperse through cash or check withdrawals. The funds may also be transferred to a secondary fraudulent domestic or international account. Funds sent to domestic accounts are often depleted rapidly making recovery difficult.

Defending Against Business Email Compromise

Employees must be trained on how to spot BEC and other phishing scams. Additionally, because business email compromise scammers perform reconnaissance on company websites and social media networks prior to launching attacks, both company executives and rank-and-file employees must be taught about the dangers of sharing personal information on social media sites.

Because many business email compromise scams in the real estate industry involve fraudulent phone calls in addition to emails, the FBI suggests that parties to real estate transactions establish “code phrases” to verify callers’ identity.

Technical defenses against BEC schemes include:

• Secure company email systems with multi-factor authentication and the DMARC email security protocol.
• Require that all employees use official company email addresses – not free, web-based email clients – for official company business.
• In most cases, businesses probably shouldn’t use a private email server, as they are very difficult and time-consuming to secure.

However, the best defense is to bake redundancy into sensitive operational procedures such as releasing wire transfers or employee tax data or changing payment type or location; mandate that all such requests be verified and authorized by more than one person.

The cyber security experts at Continuum GRC have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting your organization from security breaches. Continuum GRC offers full-service and in-house risk assessment and risk management subscriptions, and we help companies all around the world sustain proactive cyber security programs.

Continuum GRC is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-6207 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization protect its systems and ensure compliance.

Size of Exactis Data Leak Could Surpass Equifax

Last week’s data leak at Exactis, a Florida-based marketing and data aggregation firm, has cyber security experts and data privacy advocates up in arms. WIRED reports:

Earlier this month, security researcher Vinny Troia discovered that Exactis, a data broker based in Palm Coast, Florida, had exposed a database that contained close to 340 million individual records on a publicly accessible server. The haul comprises close to 2 terabytes of data that appears to include personal information on hundreds of millions of American adults, as well as millions of businesses. While the precise number of individuals included in the data isn’t clear—and the leak doesn’t seem to contain credit card information or Social Security numbers—it does go into minute detail for each individual listed, including phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, and other highly personal characteristics for every name.

Troia discovered the database by querying Shodan, a search engine for IoT devices. Shodan is widely used by security professionals, students and researchers – and cyber criminals. While there is currently no evidence that the Exactis data was accessed by hackers, being as it was fully publicly accessible to anyone with an internet connection for an undetermined period of time, Troia hypothesized to WIRED that he would “be surprised if someone else didn’t already have this.”

Could Exactis Data Leak Prompt an “American GDPR”?

With approximately 340 million records exposed, the Exactis leak is more than double the size of last year’s Equifax breach, although still smaller than the Yahoo breach. However, the size of the leak isn’t the most pressing issue; the nature of the data is. Although the data did not include credit card or Social Security numbers, it did contain home addresses, phone numbers, and emails. Each personal profile also contained up to 400 variables noting intricate personal details, including whether each person was a smoker; their religious preferences; if they had pets and what kind; if they had children, how many, and their genders and ages; and even their hobbies.

While cyber criminals cannot commit identity theft with this information alone, they can use it to launch highly targeted social engineering campaigns. In some cases, they could also use it to hack online accounts, as account security questions commonly ask for pet names, favorite vacation spots, and the other “personal profile”-type information collected by Exactis.

As of this writing, the number of individuals and businesses compromised by Exactis has not been determined, nor has it been determined whether any of the impacted records belong to EU data subjects, which would mean the leak falls under the purview of the GDPR.

The Exactis leak highlights numerous issues of deep concern to both cyber security experts and privacy advocates. Everyone knew who Equifax was even before they were breached. Most consumers, even most businesses, had probably never even heard of Exactis until last week. Personal data has become an industry in and of itself, and it’s an enormous industry filled with players large and small, well-known and obscure, who are busily aggregating and storing unknown amounts of personal data on every living person.

Despite the highly sensitive nature of the data they were aggregating, Exactis did not take even the most basic precautions to secure it; their database wasn’t even protected by a firewall. Since discoveries of misconfigured databases (especially on the AWS platform) have reached epidemic levels, it’s reasonable to assume that lax security is common.

While EU citizens and businesses can now turn to the GDPR, in the U.S., none of us have any clue who has our data, what they are doing with it, or even whether they’re storing it securely.

Will the Exactis leak be the final straw that leads to an “American GDPR”? In light of the fact that the Equifax breach prompted no changes, it’s unlikely that sweeping consumer privacy protection will pass on a federal level anytime soon. However, some states may take matters into their own hands. California just passed a comprehensive consumer privacy law that mirrors the GDPR. However, it does not go into effect until 2020, and the tech industry is mobilizing to have it amended. Should the California law emerge relatively unscathed, it could ultimately serve as a template for other state laws and, eventually, federal legislation.

The cyber security experts at Continuum GRC have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting your organization from security breaches. Continuum GRC offers full-service and in-house risk assessment and risk management subscriptions, and we help companies all around the world sustain proactive cyber security programs.

Continuum GRC is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-6207 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization protect its systems and ensure compliance.