• by Ray Schultz , October 30, 2020

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks rose by 15% from July through September compared with the prior quarter, according to a study by Abnormal Security. 

Moreover, they have been rising in 75% of the industries tracked by Abnormal Security. 

The highest attack volume was suffered by the retail and consumer goods, manufacturing, technology and media sectors. And the energy and infrastructure sector saw a 93% increase in attempts.  

Invoice and payment increased by 54% per week on average from the second quarter to the third quarter, and 81% overall. 

And, there was a 212% increase in attacks to group inboxes.  

“Since these attacks are targeted and sophisticated, these increases could indicate an ability for threat actors to scale that may overwhelm some businesses,” states Abnormal Security CEO Evan Reiser. 

However, COVID-19-related credential phishing attacks declined by 82%. 

The most impersonated brands are DHL, Dropbox and Amazon, with Zoom dropping from the top spot. Also high on the list were iCloud and LinkedIn.