What is CEO fraud
This article explains how CEO fraud works and how criminals can rob your company. CEO fraud is a form of phishing.
What is CEO fraud? CEO fraud (also often called whaling) is a form of phishing in which criminals pose as an executive or CEO. They do this by faking or spoofing company email accounts, and use this to try to trick an HR or administration employee into sharing confidential information or transferring money to accounts controlled by the criminals.
CEO fraud statistics
According to FBI statistics, CEO fraud is a major problem. Between May 2018 and July 2019, there was a 100% increase in the amount stolen by criminals. That comes out to an amount of 26 billion dollars. The scam has been reported in all 50 US states and in a total of 150 countries. So it's clearly a major problem.
The FBI reported that CEO fraud/whaling and other cybercrime, including ransomware and other forms of online fraud, were responsible for more than 4.1 billion dollars in damages in 2020 alone, with reported cases of cybercrime rising from 467,000 to more than 791,000 between 2019 and 2020 (an increase of 69%). It's clear that CEO fraud and other forms of cybercrime aren't going away, but are only becoming more cunning and severe. Especially with the rise of deepfake technology, this is something to watch closely.
Preventing CEO fraud
There are email settings you can get in order that make it harder to "spoof" your email address. Be sure to read our blog on SPF and DKIM.
Training staff is also enormously important for improving your organization's cyber resilience. In 2023, Tozetta organized a webinar: "The methods of a hacker". This can still be watched free of charge and is interesting for any employee who wants to learn more about cybercrime.
Of course, there are also options for training your staff. Tozetta also offers Cyber Security Awareness Trainings.