ActiSoft Technology - Blog #BECActiSoft Technology - Blog #BEChttps://www.actisofttechnology.com/blogs/tag/becThu, 23 Apr 2026 21:15:57 +0200http://zoho.com/sites/<![CDATA[BEC Attacks Are Targeting Lower-Level Employees]]>https://www.actisofttechnology.com/blogs/post/bec-attacks-are-targeting-lower-level-employeesBlog courtesy of KnowBe4 Written by Stu Sjouwerman A new report from Barracuda found that most business email compromise (BEC) attacks are now targeting ]]>
Blog courtesy of KnowBe4
Written by Stu Sjouwerman
A new report from Barracuda found that most business email compromise (BEC) attacks are now targeting employees who aren’t in executive or financial roles.

“Many organisations focus their training and protection on who they perceive to be the most targeted individuals within the organisation—usually executive and finance teams,” Barracuda’s researchers write. “However, 77% of BEC attacks targeted employees in other departments. Attackers look for an entry point and a weak link within your organisation, and then they work their way to more valuable accounts. This highlights the need to secure and educate every employee to the same level.”
Barracuda also found that one in five BEC attacks target employees in sales roles.

“Due to the nature of their role, sales reps are used to getting external messages from senders they haven’t communicated with before,” the researchers write. “At the same time, they are all connected with payments and with other departments including finance. For hackers, these individuals could be a perfect entry point to get into an organisation and launch other attacks.” They also have access to a lot of contacts

IT departments were another prime target, with each IT employee being targeted by an average of forty attacks.

“When we look at the number of phishing emails targeting IT teams, although they received only 5% of the total number of attacks, each employee was targeted by 40 email attacks, which is well above average,” the researchers write. “IT staff has access to business-critical applications, so compromising their accounts can be extremely valuable to hackers as it will give them access to organisations’ security and IT infrastructure. Cybercriminals tailor their attacks to their victims, so there were barely any BEC attacks, which usually look for quick monetary return, targeting IT teams. However, when it comes to attacks that include phishing URLs designed to compromise accounts, IT was one of the top targets.”

New-school security awareness training can enable employees throughout your organisation to recognise and thwart social engineering attacks.

Barracuda has the full story. 

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New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn't a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilise users as your last line of defence. Request your one-on-one demo of KnowBe4's security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be!

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]]>Wed, 18 Aug 2021 07:40:00 +0000<![CDATA[Phishing Remains the Most Common Form of Attack]]>https://www.actisofttechnology.com/blogs/post/phishing-remains-the-most-common-form-of-attackBlog courtesy of KnowBe4 Written by Stu Sjouwerman Phishing attacks are “by far” the most common vector for data breaches, according to a new survey by ]]>
Blog courtesy of KnowBe4
Written by Stu Sjouwerman
Phishing attacks are “by far” the most common vector for data breaches, according to a new survey by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS).


“Among those that have identified breaches or attacks, around a quarter (27% of these businesses and 23% of these charities) experience them at least once a week,” the report states. “The most common by far are phishing attacks (for 83% and 79% respectively), followed by impersonation (for 27% and 23%). Broadly, these patterns around frequency and threat vectors are in line with the 2020 and 2019 results.”

The DCMS says most of the respondents observed a noticeable increase in phishing attacks since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Among the organisations saying cyber security had become a higher priority under the pandemic, there were those that said that, in their case, the frequency of attacks had increased since March 2020 – especially phishing attacks,” the report says. “Others giving this response felt their organisations were more exposed to cyber risks now that their staff were working from home, because there were more endpoints to deal with and because they had less oversight of staff outside the office. In some cases where organisations had moved online to a greater extent following the lockdown, management boards had started paying more attention to cyber security as a business risk.”
The report found that only 20% of businesses said they conducted simulated phishing exercises for their employees, although respondents had a favourable view of risk assessments.

“In addition to their core purpose of identifying key risks, risk assessments were often viewed as a good way to produce evidence for management boards, which could be used to justify proposed cyber security actions or investment, or to show trends over time and whether things had improved,” the report says. “For example, one medium business carried out a mock phishing exercise as part of their risk assessment – they found that 15 per cent of staff responded to the mock phishing email, and presented these findings to the management board. This led to new user training on phishing emails, as well as other technical rule changes.”

New-school security awareness training with simulated phishing tests can help your employees thwart social engineering attacks.

The DCMS has the story.

Free Phishing Security Test

Would your users fall for convincing phishing attacks? Take the first step now and find out before the bad guys do. Plus, see how you stack up against your peers with phishing Industry Benchmarks. The Phish-prone percentage is usually higher than you expect and is great ammo to get budget.

Here's how it works:

    • Immediately start your test for up to 100 users (no need to talk to anyone)
    • Select from 20+ languages and customise the phishing test template based on your environment
    • Choose the landing page your users see after they click
    • Show users which red flags they missed, or a 404 page
    • Get a PDF emailed to you in 24 hours with your Phish-prone % and charts to share with management
    • See how your organisation compares to others in your industry
Go Phishing Now!
]]>Mon, 29 Mar 2021 13:33:05 +0000<![CDATA[The Most Commonly Spoofed Business-Related Applications in a Phishing Campaign]]>https://www.actisofttechnology.com/blogs/post/the-most-commonly-spoofed-business-related-applications-in-a-phishing-campaignBlog courtesy of KnowBe4 Written by Stu Sjouwerman Business-related applications like Zoom, Microsoft, and DocuSign are the most commonly spoofed servic ]]>
Blog courtesy of KnowBe4
Written by Stu Sjouwerman

Business-related applications like Zoom, Microsoft, and DocuSign are the most commonly spoofed services in phishing attacks, according to a new report from GreatHorn. Business apps made up 45% of all impersonation phishing attacks. Social media-related phishing attacks accounted for 34% of attacks, while consumer services like Amazon and PayPal made up 20%.


The researchers also found that while the total volume of daily phishing attempts has decreased compared to last year, the number of successful phishing attacks has increased. The researchers attribute this to attackers getting better at the social engineering aspect, as well as getting their emails past security filters.

“Though daily occurrences of phishing attacks have decreased from 36% to 25% between 2020 and 2021, weekly and monthly phishing attacks have increased from 28% to 42% and 11% to 17%, respectively,” GreatHorn says. “These attacks are increasingly difficult to detect as cybercriminals become more sophisticated and targeted in their attacks – advancing beyond the ‘batch and blast’ methodology to social engineering phishing campaigns. As a result of this, the quantity of phishing attempts being experienced by organisations may have decreased daily, but the impact of those campaigns that bypass traditional email security is increasing. As a result of increasing attacks, email security has risen to one of the top 3 IT security projects for 2021 among the organisations surveyed.
The researchers note that a primary concern of most respondents regarding email security products was that the product would miss phishing attacks.

“Missing phishing attacks remains the top issue in current email security solutions with 39% of respondents noting this as a top concern in both 2020 and 2021,” the researchers write. They add, “Fewer organisations report being ‘satisfied’ with their current email security solution, decreasing from 76% in 2020 to 53% in 2021. On the other hand, organisations reporting their email security solution was ‘good enough’ increased from 19% in 2020 to 36% in 2021.”

New-school security awareness training can provide your organisation with an essential layer of defence by teaching your employees how to recognise phishing attacks.

GreatHorn has the full story. 

Free Phishing Security Test

Would your users fall for convincing phishing attacks? Take the first step now and find out before the bad guys do. Plus, see how you stack up against your peers with phishing Industry Benchmarks. The Phish-prone percentage is usually higher than you expect and is great ammo to get budget.

Here's how it works:

    • Immediately start your test for up to 100 users (no need to talk to anyone)
    • Select from 20+ languages and customise the phishing test template based on your environment
    • Choose the landing page your users see after they click
    • Show users which red flags they missed, or a 404 page
    • Get a PDF emailed to you in 24 hours with your Phish-prone % and charts to share with management
    • See how your organisation compares to others in your industry
Go Phishing Now!
]]>Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:20:43 +0000<![CDATA[A Hacker Is Selling Access To The Email Accounts Of Hundreds Of C-Level Executives]]>https://www.actisofttechnology.com/blogs/post/a-hacker-is-selling-access-to-the-email-accounts-of-hundreds-of-c-level-executivesBlog courtesy of KnowBe4 Written by Stu Sjouwerman ZDNet's Zero Day column just reported one of the best reasons why you sh ]]>
Blog courtesy of KnowBe4

Written by Stu Sjouwerman

Great for Marketing Purposes and for Phishing!

ZDNet's Zero Day column just reported one of the best reasons why you should step your users through new-school security awareness training yet:


"A threat actor is currently selling passwords for the email accounts of hundreds of C-level executives at companies across the world. The data is being sold on a closed-access underground forum for Russian-speaking hackers named Exploit.in, ZDNet has learned this week.  The threat actor is selling email and password combinations for Office 365 and Microsoft accounts, which he claims are owned by high-level executives occupying functions such as:

    • CEO - chief executive officer
    • COO - chief operating officer
    • CFO - chief financial officer or chief financial controller
    • CMO - chief marketing officer
    • CTOs - chief technology officer
    • President
    • Vice president
    • Executive Assistant
    • Finance Manager
    • Accountant
    • Director
    • Finance Director
    • Financial Controller
    • Accounts Payable
Access to any of these accounts is sold for prices ranging from $100 to $1,500, depending on the company size and user's role. A source in the cyber-security community who agreed to contact the seller to obtain samples has confirmed the validity of the data and obtained valid credentials for two accounts, the CEO of a US medium-sized software company and the CFO of an EU-based retail store chain.

The source, which requested that ZDNet not use its name, is in the process of notifying the two companies, but also two other companies for which the seller published account passwords as public proof that they had valid data to sell. These were login details for an executive at a UK business management consulting agency and for the president of a US apparel and accessories maker.

I don't have to tell you the risks that this brings related to CEO Fraud, also known as Business Email Compromise. ZDNet has the full story.

Get Your CEO Fraud Prevention Manual

CEO fraud has ruined the careers of many executives and loyal employees, causing over $26 billion in losses. Don’t be the next victim. This manual provides a thorough overview of how executives are compromised, how to prevent such an attack and what to do if you become a victim.

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Want to know and monitor the Dark Web for your organisations credentials? Check out our DomainWatch service

]]>Tue, 01 Dec 2020 11:15:21 +0000<![CDATA[The Geography of Business Emails Compromise]]>https://www.actisofttechnology.com/blogs/post/the-geography-of-business-emails-compromiseBlog courtesy of KnowBe4 Written by Stu Sjouwerman Researchers at Agari have released a report on the global distribution of business email compromise ( ]]>

Blog courtesy of KnowBe4

Written by Stu Sjouwerman

Researchers at Agari have released a report on the global distribution of business email compromise (BEC) actors, and determined that 25% of these criminals are operating from within the United States. This makes the US the second-largest hub for BEC actors in the world. Criminals in Nigeria still account for the vast majority of BEC attacks, at 50% of the global total. South Africa was third, with criminals there responsible for 9% of these attacks. Agari’s researchers based their findings on incidents in which the attackers failed to anonymise their real-world locations.

“A quarter of the BEC actors we identified globally were located in the US, operating in 45 states and the District of Columbia,” Agari says. “Nearly half these scammers were located in five states: California, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and New York Many of the BEC actors in our dataset were clustered around a handful of US cities. The largest of these were based in and around Atlanta, GA, with 7% of all US-based BEC actors operating in this metropolitan area.”


The US government isn’t letting these actors operate unperturbed—the Justice Department has arrested dozens of people allegedly involved in these schemes. Still, the number of BEC attacks originating in the US is notable, considering that Europe only accounts for 6%, the Middle East for 4%, and the Asia-Pacific for 2%.


“It’s well-known that organizations within the United States are preferred targets for BEC actors. Some groups our team has researched, such as Exaggerated Lion, have exclusively targeted US-based businesses, for instance. But it may be surprising to some that a quarter of all BEC actors operate from within the US.”


Agari adds that BEC activity is on the rise in other countries as well.


“Because of the impact of BEC attacks globally, law enforcement in Nigeria has become more aggressive in recent years, which has caused BEC actors to migrate to other countries,” the researchers write. “Additionally, the significant return on investment from BEC scams has led far more sophisticated Eastern European cybercrime groups, like Cosmic Lynx, to get into the game. This only increases the geographic distribution of BEC attack sources.”

BEC attacks are extremely profitable, so criminals put a great deal of effort into refining their tactics. New-school security awareness training can help your employees thwart targeted social engineering attacks.

Agari has the story.

Get Your CEO Fraud Prevention Manual

CEO fraud has ruined the careers of many executives and loyal employees, causing over $26 billion in losses. Don’t be the next victim. This manual provides a thorough overview of how executives are compromised, how to prevent such an attack and what to do if you become a victim.

Get Your Manual
]]>Tue, 03 Nov 2020 13:32:08 +0000