How To Prevent Business Email Compromise Before It Impacts Your Business

Many businesses that already work with a managed IT services provider find that their MSP offers some level of cybersecurity protection as part of their overall service and technology stack.

What business owners, CEOs, and IT leaders really want to know, however, is whether that protection is proactive and what their IT provider is doing behind the scenes to stay ahead of today’s cyber threats.

One of the most common and costly threats businesses are facing today is email-based attacks, specifically Business Email Compromise, or BEC. These attacks do not rely on malware, pop ups, or obvious warning signs. Instead, they exploit trust, routine business processes, and gaps in employee cybersecurity awareness to trick organizations into exposing sensitive information.

In this article, we will explain what Business Email Compromise is, share a real-world example of how Kelser proactively intercepted a BEC attempt before it impacted a client, and outline what your IT provider should be doing behind the scenes to help prevent these types of attacks.

This will help you better understand what protection you should expect, and whether your current IT provider is doing enough to stop BEC attacks.

What Is Business Email Compromise (BEC)?

Business Email Compromise occurs when an attacker gains access to, or successfully impersonates, a trusted email account such as a CEO, finance manager, controller, or vendor contact and uses it to trick someone into sharing sensitive information, credentials, or data.

Unlike many cyberattacks, BEC does not come with malware warnings or suspicious attachments. The email often looks completely legitimate and usually appears to come from someone the recipient interacts with regularly.

Common examples include requests to:

• update banking information
• share payroll or tax documents
• urgently send confidential files

The message typically creates urgency around a routine business request and pressures the recipient to act quickly without verifying the request through another channel or with the appropriate internal personnel.

Why Business Email Compromise Is Such An Effective Tactic For Hackers

Business Email Compromise works because it targets how businesses operate and communicate every day.

Most organizations rely heavily on email for approvals, payments, and communication. Attackers take advantage of this reliance by exploiting weak or reused passwords, limited or wrongly configured email authentication controls, and the absence of proactive monitoring.

Additionally, a lack of ongoing employee security awareness training significantly increases risk. When employees are not trained to recognize suspicious requests or understand how BEC attacks work, they are more likely to act quickly and click a malicious link or share sensitive information, from what appears to be a legitimate email without stopping to verify it.

Because these messages often look familiar and routine, traditional spam filters by themselves are not enough to prevent them from reaching employee inboxes and causing real business impact.

A Real Example: How Kelser Stopped A BEC Attack Before It Impacted A Client’s Business

To show what this looks like in practice, here is a real-world example.

Recently, Kelser intercepted a Business Email Compromise attempt for one of our clients.

At first glance, the email looked legitimate. It appeared to come from a trusted source and did not include obvious malicious links or attachments, but it did have an QR code which was odd. The advanced email security monitoring we provide for all our managed IT services clients detected this, and noted that this activity did not align with the user’s normal behavior patterns.

Furthermore, our cybersecurity team investigated the activity, confirmed it was a BEC attempt, and intervened before any sensitive information was shared or any business impact occurred.

From the client’s perspective, nothing went wrong. That is exactly how proactive cybersecurity should work. The goal is to reduce exposure by detecting and stopping threats before employees ever have to deal with them.

What Your IT Provider Should Be Doing To Prevent BEC Attacks

Many businesses assume that because they have some form of cybersecurity in place, they are protected from threats like Business Email Compromise. In reality, preventing BEC depends on how proactive, layered, and well-managed your IT provider’s approach truly is.

Here are 5 key things your IT provider should be doing behind the scenes to reduce the risk of BEC attacks before they impact your business.

1. Actively Monitoring For Suspicious Email Activity

Effective BEC prevention goes well beyond basic spam filtering.

Your IT provider should be monitoring for unusual login behavior, abnormal email activity, unexpected changes to mailbox security rules, and patterns that deviate from normal user behavior.

This level of visibility allows potential threats to be identified early, often before a malicious actor can succeed.

2. Having Clear Investigation And Response Processes In Place

Active monitoring alone is not enough.

When suspicious activity is detected, your IT provider should have defined investigation and response procedures that kick in immediately. That means quickly reviewing the activity, determining whether it is malicious, containing the threat, and preventing further access before any data is shared or financial harm occurs.

Without clear response processes, warning signs can be missed or acted on too slowly, allowing a routine-looking email to turn into a costly incident.

3. Proactively Configuring Email Security Controls Like SPF, DKIM, And DMARC

Strong email security starts with proper configuration and the right security controls.

Your IT provider should ensure that email authentication controls such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are correctly configured and actively monitored. These controls help verify that emails are coming from legitimate sources and significantly reduce exposure to impersonation-based attacks like BEC.

4. Enforcing Strong Identity And Access Management Controls

Many Business Email Compromise attacks succeed because a malicious actor gains access to a legitimate user account.

Your IT provider should be enforcing strong identity and access management practices. This includes using multi factor authentication (MFA) on email and critical systems, limiting access so employees only have what they need to do their jobs, and not automatically trusting every login simply because a password was entered.

Reducing unnecessary access and adding verification layers makes it far more difficult for attackers to move through your environment or impersonate trusted users.

5. Hardening Systems And Closing Infrastructure Gaps Attackers Look For

BEC prevention also depends on keeping your IT environment secure.

Your IT provider should be keeping systems fully patched, securing networks and Wi Fi, and watching for indicators such as lookalike email domains or suspicious activity designed to impersonate your business. These behind-the-scenes controls help close the gaps attackers rely on to make their emails appear legitimate.

Why Your Business Still Needs Employee Security Awareness Training To Stop BEC Attacks

Even with advanced monitoring and strong email security controls in place, employees remain a critical part of BEC prevention.

Your IT provider can do a lot behind the scenes, but they also need your employees to understand how these attacks work and when to slow down, question a request, and verify it through the proper channels.

Employee security awareness training should be mandatory, ongoing, and based on real world scenarios employees actually encounter. It should help them recognize red flags such as unusual urgency, unexpected requests for sensitive information, incorrect URLs, QR codes and email addresses, without being time consuming or disruptive to their daily work.

When employees understand their role in protecting your organization, they become one of the strongest layers you can have against cyber-attacks.

What This Means For Your Business And What To Do Next

You now have a clearer understanding of what Business Email Compromise is and what your IT provider should be doing proactively behind the scenes to stop these attacks before they impact your business.

Effective protection requires advanced and proactive monitoring, properly configured email security controls, and ongoing employee security awareness training so staff know how to recognize suspicious requests and respond appropriately.

The real question is whether your IT provider is doing this work for you.

If you can’t confidently answer that, you’re not alone. Much of this happens behind the scenes, and many providers don’t clearly explain what they’re doing to prevent threats like BEC.

At Kelser, we regularly speak with business owners, CEOs, and IT leaders who want a clearer understanding of their cybersecurity posture and whether their IT provider is doing what they should behind the scenes.

A no-cost conversation with Lisa and Patrick from our leadership team can help you understand what is working, where gaps may exist, and what strong, proactive IT protection should realistically look suggested or refined for your organization.

It is a straightforward, no pressure conversation with two IT leaders who help Connecticut businesses understand what is really going on with their technology and what to do next.