A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who is returning from vacation notices several emails from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) requesting funds be transferred immediately. The CFO replies that the…

The correct answer is B. Hijacking. This scenario describes email account hijacking (also known as Business Email Compromise, or BEC). The attacker gained unauthorized access to the CEO's actual email account and used it to send fraudulent wire transfer requests to the CFO. Because the emails came from the real…

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Question

A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who is returning from vacation notices several emails from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) requesting funds be transferred immediately. The CFO replies that the funds will be transferred, but the CEO responds that there was never a request for funds to be transferred. Which of the following MOST likely happened?

Options

AShadow IT
BHijacking
CMalware
DVirus
ESpear phishing

How the community answered

(26 responses)

A
8% (2)
B
46% (12)
C
27% (7)
D
15% (4)
E
4% (1)

Explanation

This scenario describes email account hijacking (also known as Business Email Compromise, or BEC). The attacker gained unauthorized access to the CEO's actual email account and used it to send fraudulent wire transfer requests to the CFO. Because the emails came from the real CEO account, they appeared legitimate. When the CEO denied making any requests, it confirmed the account had been taken over. Spear phishing (E) may have been the initial attack vector used to steal the CEO's credentials, but the resulting crime - impersonating an executive via a compromised account to commit financial fraud - is account hijacking.

Topics

#email hijacking#social engineering#spear phishing#account security

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