Most businesses and consumers today prefer digital channels as their preferred method of communication. We rely on things like email so much for example, that when we hit “send”, the last thing we often think about is whether someone is trying to scam us on the other side. However, business email compromise (BEC) is one of the fastest-growing forms of cybercrime and is now a $26 billion scam that targets businesses and individuals who conduct wire transactions. Cyber-attacks are problematic for all businesses but hit the financial services industry 300 times harder than any other sector.
Private equity, venture capital, real estate, and other financial sectors that deal with large amounts of cash flow are at the most considerable risk when it comes to wire fraud. As fraudsters adapt to new technologies, they find more sophisticated ways to place themselves in the middle of high-value transactions. Unfortunately, most firms underestimate how easy it is to unknowingly compromise information and what the financial impact of impersonation actually is.