It may surprise you to know that hackers have found a way
to steal millions of dollars without threatening, hacking,
or even using malware.
Using a simple email, a hacker can
convince employees to transfer company money voluntarily.
They use a simple technique--
deception.
Here's an example.
The hacker uses an email address made
to look almost identical to the email of a company's CEO,
with only slight differences that most employees wouldn't
notice.
For example, replacing an I with an L. Then
he sends an urgent email to the financial department
to wire funds to an overseas bank account within 24 hours.
Most financial departments will respond to an urgent email
from a CEO immediately.
This type of fraud is called BEC, business email compromise,
or wire fraud.
In January of 2015, this happened
to Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer
organization.
Xoom reported that they transferred $30.8 million
to fraudulent overseas accounts.
It was a result of a BEC attack where
fake emails were sent to the company's finance department.
The CFO resigned and the company stock dropped by 14%.
Once the funds are transferred, the hacker
is free to make a withdrawal and escape without a fight.
Every year, companies around the world lose over $2 billion
from this sort of attack.
In the next video, we'll explore BEC further and learn
a few ways to prevent it.