BEC Continues to Surpass Ransomware in Financial Impact, Despite Headlines

CSO Online has posted an article detailing how business email compromise (BEC) attacks continue to have a larger impact on the economy compared to ransomware attacks, despite the more significant amount of media attention devoted to the latter. Based off of data from the FBI, in 2021 BEC attacks were responsible for the loss of $2.4 billion, in comparison to a loss of $49.2 million to ransomware attacks. The article offers a few explanations for this mismatch between reality and expectation. First, on average, a BEC attack steals less money than a ransomware attack, with the average cost of a BEC attack in 2021 being $120,000 while the average ransomware demand was $2.2 billion. Second, BEC attacks can be treated as a case of regular theft, while ransomware attacks often have an additional operational impact to an organization. Third, BEC attacks are easier to perform, making it common for criminals to execute them in mass, while ransomware attacks are more bespoke. Read more at CSO Online.