2023 Marcum Year-End Tax Guide

113 THE MARCUM YEAR-END TAX GUIDE 2023

3. Business Email Compromise Scams Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams have become a significant organizational threat with devastating financial consequences. In a BEC scam, cybercriminals gain access to an employee’s email account through various means, such as phishing or social engineering tactics. Once inside, they carefully observe and monitor email communication to identify opportunities to deceive employees into making fraudulent payments. The attackers often disguise themselves as trusted individuals, such as vendors or clients, using spoofed or compromised email accounts to send convincing requests for fund transfers. These emails are intricately crafted to appear legitimate, often mimicking the tone and language of regular business correspondence. The financial damage caused by BEC scams can be significant, sometimes ranging from thousands to millions of dollars, in a single incident. Detecting and recovering from BEC scams poses immense challenges. Unlike other cybersecurity threats, BEC scams often don’t involve malware or suspicious network activity, making them difficult to detect using traditional security measures. By exploiting human vulnerabilities and manipulating trust, attackers bypass security defenses. Additionally, recovering stolen funds can be incredibly challenging, as fraudulent transactions are often irreversible or quickly moved to multiple accounts, making it difficult to trace and retrieve the funds.

To combat BEC scams, organizations must implement a multi-layered approach that includes strong email security measures, such as email authentication protocols, advanced threat detection solutions, and an awareness program to foster a culture of suspicion and verification when it comes to financial transactions. Regularly reviewing and updating internal payment authorization procedures can help prevent fraudulent transfers. 4. Cloud Security Concerns Cloud security is a prominent concern for enterprises as it protects sensitive data stored, processed, and transmitted in cloud computing environments. Cybercriminals can exploit various vulnerabilities in cloud security to gain unauthorized access and compromise the integrity hijacking, where attackers gain unauthorized access to user accounts. This can be achieved through various means, such as stealing login credentials through phishing attacks or exploiting weak passwords. Once an account is hijacked, attackers can access and manipulate data, impersonate legitimate users, or launch further attacks within the cloud environment. Another concern is misconfigured cloud settings. Improperly configured security controls and access permissions can expose sensitive data and resources to unauthorized individuals. Attackers can exploit these misconfigurations to gain privileges and perform malicious activities, such as data and confidentiality of data. One specific risk is account

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