Imagine if you or someone else worked for a company as an accountant and at some point received an email from the CEO saying,
“Good evening, I need W-2s (tax forms) for everyone in the company.”
As the diligent accountant that you are, you gather the requested tax forms and immediately send them to the CEO. But the original email wasn’t actually from the CEO—it was written by a hacker who had hacked into the CEO’s email account with the intention of defrauding you.
The goal? To create a new type of crime, of course, in the world of the internet and everything else related to it, called BEC (business email compromise), which hackers have used to try to steal billions of dollars in recent years.
“Our adversaries are opportunists,” FBI agent Mitchell Thompson said, speaking to reporters Tuesday in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan during a closed-door meeting to discuss the ever-growing online threats. “They’re looking to exploit the most vulnerable spots.”
There are many different types of BEC crimes, including the executive impersonation described above, which first appeared just before the 2016 tax season.
Once hackers have stolen your information, they can sell it to other criminals or even use it themselves for a lucrative credit card or even tax refund scam.
