Email remains the backbone of business communication and with more and more people accessing emails frequently on their phones, comes the growing concern of employees falling victim to the growing threat: Business Email Compromise (BEC). This sophisticated form of cyber crime is costing organisations billions globally – and no business is too small to be targeted.
What is Business Email Compromise?
BEC is a targeted cyberattack where criminals impersonate a trusted contact (often a senior executive, supplier or partner) to trick employees into transferring money or sensitive data. Cyber criminals will looked at Linkedin to check new job updates and target vulnerable employees who are new to your business.
Unlike traditional phishing, BEC doesn’t rely on malicious links or attachments. Instead, it exploits human trust and email vulnerabilities.
Common BEC tactics include:
– CEO Fraud: impersonating a company executive to request urgent wire transfers.
– Invoice scams: posing as a supplier to change bank details on legitimate invoices.
– Account compromise: gaining access to a real email account to send fraudulent messages.
– Legal or HR impersonation: requesting sensitive employee data under the guise of legal or HR departments.
Why BEC is so dangerous
– Highly targeted: attackers research their victims, making emails appear legitimate.
– Hard to detect: no malware or suspicious links, just convincing language and timing.
– Costly: according to the FBI, BEC scams have caused over £50 billion in losses globally.
How CSG helps you defend against BEC
At CSG, we are passionate about helping keep your business envrionment secure. Traditional email security tools aren’t enough to stop modern threats like BEC. That’s why we offer a multi-layered defence strategy built around Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and proactive threat intelligence:
24/7 threat monitoring with MDR
Our MDR service provides round-the-clock monitoring of your Office 365 environment. We detect and respond to suspicious activity (like unusual login locations, email forwarding rules, or impersonation attempts) before they escalate.
Advanced email security
We deploy AI-powered email filtering and impersonation protection to detect anomalies in sender behaviour, domain spoofing and social engineering tactics.
Account compromise detection
We monitor for signs of account takeover, such as:
- Impossible travel logins
- Unusual mailbox rules
- Sudden spikes in email activity
User awareness training
Your people are your first line of defence. We provide ongoing security awareness training to help employees spot and report suspicious emails.
Expert-led incident response
If a BEC attempt is detected, our security experts act fast: containing the threat, investigating the breach and helping you recover with minimal disruption.
Don’t wait for a breach to act
BEC attacks are growing more sophisticated every day. With CSG’s proactive security solutions, you can stay one step ahead of attackers and protect your business, your data and your reputation.
Want to learn more?
Join our upcoming webinar on Managed Detection and Response for Office 365 and see how we stop threats in real time!