Is This Really Susan? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

What you are doing: reading an internal-looking email line by line and flagging what gives the impersonation away. Business email compromise (BEC) is an attempt to compromise the company through business email, by impersonating someone inside it. The lesson’s point: it does not need Susan’s real mailbox, because the name on a message and its reply-to address are both easy to fake. What to look for: the address behind the display name, where replies will go, a request that skips the normal process under a deadline, anything that stops you checking with the person another way, and a request to keep it quiet.

What you'll learn

Inspect an internal-looking request email and find the signs that it is business email compromise: a colleague’s name on an outside address, replies routed elsewhere, an urgent out-of-process payment change, a block on checking by phone, and a request for secrecy

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

2.2 Explain common threat vectors and attack surfaces.

5.6 Given a scenario, implement security awareness practices.

Key terms

Business Email Compromise: An attack where a threat actor impersonates a trusted person within an organization via email to deceive employees, often by spoofing or compromising a legitimate email address.
Spoofing: An attack where an adversary impersonates a trusted entity by falsifying data such as an IP address or email address.
Impersonation: A social engineering tactic in which an adversary poses as a trusted individual or authority figure to gain a victim's confidence and compliance.
Urgency: A social engineering tactic that pressures a target to act immediately, reducing the likelihood of logical evaluation before compliance.

Topics

Business Email Compromise Spoofing Interactive Spot The Error

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