Return to Sender

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CFIN and cybersecurity firm Beauceron have partnered to deliver a three-part webinar series on cybersecurity threats in the food and beverage industry. These webinars, made exclusively for CFIN members, dive into how cybercriminals target food and beverage companies and foodtech businesses, and offer actionable steps to protect your business from unwanted threats.  

In part three of the series Tyson MacInnis, CFIN’s Regional Innovation Director for Atlantic Canada, sat down with David Shipley, CEO and co-founder of Beauceron Security, and Vidya ShankarNarayan, CIO and Assistant Deputy Minister, Information Systems Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to discuss business email compromise and how companies can protect their email systems from cyber attacks.

Following the video are the top three takeaways. 

Here are the top three takeaways from the event: 

1. Business email compromise has increased with the growth of ransomware.

Cyber criminals targeting business email accounts to steal funds and critical information is one of the oldest forms of online financial fraud, and is known as business email compromise. These phishing emails are made to look like they are from a co-worker, employer, supplier or client. Incidents of business email compromise have increased dramatically since ransomware was introduced to make fraud easier, with total losses through email costing businesses more than $43 billion globally, according to a May 2022 FBI report.

2. Food and other products can be stolen through business email compromise.

Business email compromise can result in different forms of cybercrime, including fraudulent emails from “employers” asking for wire transfers or gift card purchases. In addition, food and beverage companies can be targeted by emails from regular “customers” ordering shipments of products that are never paid for. Often the address of these fraudulent emails are very similar to the real address of a customer, and may contain information from previous emails that convince the receiver they are real. Like ransomware, business email compromise can also result in stolen critical data and the disruption of a company’s supply chain, production runs, invoicing, staff scheduling and more.

3. Only a fraction of businesses targeted by cybercriminals report the crime.

Financial global losses through business email comprise are estimated to be much higher than we think, as many businesses do not report these attacks. Business owners may be embarrassed, they may worry about the company’s reputational risk, or they may worry that the company appears vulnerable to further cyberattacks. Some do not even know they have been attacked until many months later. However, if these cyber incidents are not reported they will not receive the support necessary to get them on the federal agenda. Reporting the incident to authorities will also make it easier for a business to receive help and recover more quickly.