Security News > 2021 > February > Microsoft Sees Spike in BEC Attacks Targeting Schools

In a series of posts on Twitter, Microsoft on Tuesday warned of an uptick in gift card-themed business email compromise attacks targeting K-12 school teachers by impersonating their colleagues.

"We detected a recent spike in business email compromise attacks soliciting gift cards primarily targeting K-12 school teachers. Attackers impersonate colleagues or school officials to ask recipients to purchase various gift cards," Microsoft Security Intelligence warned.

Typical to BEC scams and phishing attacks, the threat actors employ various lures and scenarios to fabricate a sense of legitimacy and to suggest urgency.

In replies to Microsoft's tweets, security researchers said such BEC attacks have been ongoing for over a year, and that universities too are being targeted, alongside K-12 environments.

Contacted by SecurityWeek on the matter, Microsoft could not share information about the number of observed attack attempts.

To stay protected from this type of BEC attacks and other malicious activity, organizations are advised to use security solutions capable of identifying domain spoofing and impersonation attempts, and to instruct staff to always be vigilant about the content of the messages they receive.

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