Business Email Compromise
Contain compromised mail identities and fraudulent business workflows while preserving financial evidence.
On this page · 4 sections
Operating context
BEC investigations must connect identity access, mailbox configuration, message activity, payment-process changes, and out-of-band business confirmation.
- Define the security decision that business email compromise must support.
- Assign accountable owners, escalation paths, service levels, and privacy boundaries.
- Measure signal quality, response consistency, operational cost, and improvement over time.
Operational workflow
- 01
Establish scope, dependencies, normal behavior, and a documented baseline.
- 02
Collect the minimum telemetry and context needed for business email compromise.
- 03
Correlate independent signals and state confidence before taking disruptive action.
- 04
Document the decision, evidence, containment or control action, and responsible owner.
- 05
Review the outcome, tune the process, and validate the improvement with a safe test.
Signals, evidence & decisions
| Signal or artifact | Decision it supports |
|---|---|
| sign-in and session history | Establish event sequence and affected scope. |
| inbox rules, forwarding, and OAuth grants | Confirm identity, asset, or control context. |
| payment request and verification records | Support containment, recovery, or tuning. |
Record source, timestamp, collection method, confidence, owner, and disposition. Preserve the smallest useful evidence set and document any uncertainty.
Implementation & improvement
- Use trusted out-of-band contacts for financial verification.
- Preserve headers and audit logs before cleanup.
- Review recovery methods and delegated access.