Security News > 2020 > June > COVID-19 Fuels Phishing and Scams While BEC Attacks Evolve and Increase
Between the second and third weeks of March 2020, email scams and phishing attacks spiked by an unprecedented 436%. Such was the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BEC attacks represent a low percentage of email attacks by volume, but a disproportionally high percentage of overall loss to business.
According to Abnormal Security's Quarterly BEC Report Q1 2020, there have been several major shifts in BEC attack patterns.
BEC attacks do not get the media coverage given to phishing/scam attacks, which are more widespread, frequent, and noisy.
"By volume, BEC attacks represent a small percentage of the total number of email attacks in general. BEC attacks are targeted attempts, done after the targets have been identified and researched." The cost to business remains disproportionately high.
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