{"id":2731,"date":"2024-12-05T14:42:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T13:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enthec.com\/?p=2731"},"modified":"2024-12-17T12:22:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T11:22:59","slug":"what-is-ceo-fraud-and-how-can-it-be-avoided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enthec.com\/en\/what-is-ceo-fraud-and-how-can-it-be-avoided\/","title":{"rendered":"What is CEO fraud, and how can it be avoided?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cybercriminals benefit significantly from the success of cyberattacks known as CEO fraud and the evolution of technology behind the proliferation of this type of attack.<\/p>\n
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CEO fraud, or “Business Email Compromise” (BEC)<\/strong>, is a cyber scam in which criminals impersonate a company’s CEO or senior executive to deceive employees and obtain money transfers or confidential information. This type of fraud has gained notoriety in recent years due to its effectiveness and the significant financial impact on organizations. The impact of CEO fraud can be devastating for businesses. Financial losses are often significant,<\/strong> and recovering stolen money is difficult or impossible. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we’ve already seen, CEO fraud is a sophisticated tactic that cybercriminals use to trick a company’s employees into obtaining financial benefits or sensitive information. This type of fraud relies on psychological manipulation and social engineering to achieve its goals.<\/strong> The first step in CEO fraud is thoroughly investigating the target company<\/strong>. Cybercriminals collect information about the company’s organizational structure, senior executives’ names and titles, and employees with access to finances or sensitive information. Once the scammers have gathered enough information, they create email addresses that mimic those of the company’s top executives.<\/strong> Sometimes, they even compromise executives’ real email accounts to send fraudulent messages. Cybercriminals email company employees, posing as the CEO or a senior executive. These emails typically feel urgent and ask for immediate action<\/strong>, such as money transfers to bank accounts controlled by criminals or disclosing sensitive information. Emails involved in CEO fraud include psychological manipulation<\/strong> to increase the likelihood of success. For example, subtle threats, such as the possibility of losing a significant business opportunity, or promises of rewards, such as a promotion or bonus. Cybercriminals achieve their goals if employees fall for the trap and perform the requested actions. Money transfers are sent to bank accounts controlled by criminals and are almost impossible to trace, or the sensitive information obtained is used for other malicious purposes.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Preventing CEO fraud requires taking security measures<\/strong> specifically aimed at these types of attacks, such as:<\/p>\n It is one of the most effective measures to prevent CEO fraud. These protocols ensure that any request for money transfer or disclosure of confidential information is verified before execution.<\/strong> Some best practices include:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Email protection is crucial to preventing CEO fraud. Businesses should implement email security solutions <\/strong>that include:<\/p>\n Companies should establish external confirmation procedures and internal verification protocols to ensure the authenticity of money transfer requests.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Knowing signs of potential CEO fraud is crucial to preventing such attacks. To do this, employees must be familiar with the various warning signs, and the organization must be aware of the threats to which it is exposed at all times that can be used to arm the attack.<\/strong><\/p>\n Several red flags can indicate a fraud attempt by the CEO.<\/p>\n To detect possible attempts at fraud by the CEO, it is convenient for companies to implement monitoring techniques<\/strong> that include all web layers.<\/p>\n The surface web includes all websites accessible through conventional search engines. Monitoring tools track mentions of the organization, executive names, and other sensitive information on blogs, forums, and social media<\/strong>. They help identify potential attempts by cybercriminals to collect information.<\/p>\n The deep web includes content not indexed by conventional search engines, such as databases, private forums, and password-protected websites. Specialized monitoring tools track suspicious activity on these sites<\/strong>. It includes searching for leaked information, such as login credentials, that cybercriminals could use to engineer a CEO fraud attack.<\/p>\n The dark web is a part of the deep web that requires special software to access, such as Tor. It’s commonplace to sell and share stolen information. Specialized monitoring tools track the sale of sensitive information, such as email credentials, financial data, and sensitive personal data.<\/strong> They provide an early warning that cybercriminals are collecting information for a potential attack.<\/p>\n Behavioral analysis tools help identify unusual activity in email accounts and financial systems<\/strong>. They detect anomalous behavior patterns, such as login attempts from unusual locations or unauthorized money transfers.<\/p>\n Regular audits of financial transactions and electronic communications are essential to detect anomalies. Audits help identify suspicious activity and patterns<\/strong> and ensure that proper security procedures are in place and followed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We know some of these attacks when they jump into the media,<\/strong> but they are not all, as most companies try to prevent them from going public for reputational reasons.<\/p>\n Thanks to its Threat Exposure Management (TEM) solutions, Enthec <\/a>allows the organization to monitor the different layers of the web to locate the leaked and exposed information available to anyone<\/strong> who wants to use it to design a CEO Fraud attack. This includes sensitive corporate information and the personal information of the CEO and senior executives so that the organization can neutralize its effects even before the attack is executed. Cybercriminals benefit significantly from the success of cyberattacks known as CEO fraud and the evolution of technology behind the proliferation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[24,32],"class_list":["post-2731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cybersecurity","tag-kartos-en"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nCEO fraud is characterized by its sophistication and the use of<\/strong> social engineering<\/a> techniques. Cybercriminals thoroughly investigate the targeted company, gathering information about its organizational structure, executives, and employees. They use this information to create forged emails, apparently sent by some senior official, that appear authentic and often contain a sense of urgency.
\nThese emails may request money transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals <\/strong>or the disclosure of sensitive information.
\nSome of the techniques<\/strong> used to carry out CEO fraud are:<\/p>\n\n
\nYou may be interested in our content\u2192 How to prevent identity theft on social networks.<\/a><\/p>\nHow CEO Fraud Works: Main Steps<\/h2>\n
\nThe typical steps<\/strong> that fraudsters take to carry out CEO fraud are:<\/p>\nResearch and information gathering<\/h3>\n
\nThis information is obtained through various sources, such as social networks, corporate websites, and public databases.<\/strong><\/p>\nImpersonation<\/h3>\n
\nThese spoofed emails are designed to look authentic and often contain specific details that increase their credibility.<\/strong><\/p>\nSending the fraudulent email<\/h3>\n
\nScammers use persuasion and psychological manipulation tactics <\/strong>to convince employees to act quickly without following the usual verification procedures.<\/p>\nPsychological manipulation<\/h3>\n
\nFraudsters also take advantage of times of high market pressure <\/strong>or changes in the company, such as mergers or acquisitions, to increase the credibility of their requests.<\/p>\nExecution of the scam<\/h3>\n
Strategies to avoid CEO fraud<\/h2>\n
Establishing Verification Protocols<\/h3>\n
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Email Protection<\/h3>\n
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External confirmation procedures<\/h3>\n
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Is it possible to detect signs to avoid being a victim of CEO fraud?<\/h2>\n
Red Flags<\/h3>\n
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Monitoring techniques<\/h3>\n
Surface Web Monitoring<\/h4>\n
Deep web monitoring<\/h4>\n
Dark web monitoring<\/h4>\n
Behavioral Analysis<\/h4>\n
Regular audits<\/h4>\n
Relevant Examples of CEO Fraud<\/h2>\n
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Enthec helps you manage your organization’s threat exposure<\/h2>\n
\nContact us<\/a> to learn more about how Enthec can help you avoid CEO fraud<\/strong> and other social engineering techniques and the costly financial impact that comes with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"