Eftsure Launches Software Tool for Testing Email Address Security

SYDNEY, December 13, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Payment redirection scams – or “business email compromise” (BEC) attacks – cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars each year. And the crime usually starts with compromised email credentials. Now, finance teams have a new tool for quickly checking whether their email addresses and personal data have been exposed, which increases the risk of being victimized by business scams.  

Based in Australia, Eftsure is the creator of end-to-end B2B payment protection software that provides security and automation for accounts payable and receivable, mitigating the risk of payment error, fraud, and cybercrime. Its solution safeguards over $120 billion in payments annually.  

Though IT and security teams may work to block standard hacking attempts, payment redirection scams circumvent those protections by targeting companies’ finance departments via email. In other words, even if your own cyber defenses are effective, you can still fall victim to payment redirection scams if a supplier or partner organization is compromised. 

Payment redirection scams cost Australian businesses alone about $277 million in 2021, according to a recent report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). In this scam, criminals use an email address belonging to the employee of a business – often acquired in hacks or data breaches of other websites – to trick the company into paying them money.   

"It's important to understand whether your information has been exposed and ensure you've taken steps to secure both personal and work-related accounts. Without those steps, you may be at even higher risk of scams or fraud,” said Eftsure CEO Mark Chazan.  

Eftsure’s new tool is designed to inform finance teams if their emails have been exposed and to suggest ways to prevent cyberattacks. To do so, Eftsure leverages the well-known global "Have I Been Pwnd?" database of addresses and associated information exposed in large-scale data breaches. Users simply input their email addresses into the Eftsure tool. If the user has been affected, they receive an email from Eftsure providing resources to help improve their financial controls and protections against cybercrime.    

Business email compromise increased 77% from 2021 to 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported in July. The average loss increased by 26% to $64,000. However, the total financial cost is typically three to five times greater, said Gavin Levinsohn, chief growth officer for Eftsure. Companies that experience breaches usually incur additional expenses, from the cost of repairing and reinforcing cybersecurity to payments for regulatory fines, insurance, and class action lawsuits.  

Business email compromise begins when a criminal finds a business email address and associated information exposed in one or more hacks, Levinsohn said. The criminal then uses that address and information to deceive a finance team into sending a payment, usually in one of two ways.  

In supply email compromise, the criminal impersonates a supplier to the business, convincing the finance team to click a link and send a payment to what appears to be the supplier’s account but instead belongs to the criminal.   

In an executive email compromise, the criminal impersonates a senior finance executive in the company and instructs a junior finance team employee to pay an invoice linked to an account controlled by the criminal. Cybersecurity consultants report that about 90% of all cyberattacks and breaches in Australia since 2018 have begun with an email compromise, which can undercut companies’ security measures.

Businesses’ IT teams have become very good at “locking the front door,” Levinsohn said. “What Eftsure does is it closes the back door. It makes sure that, even if these scams and frauds come at you, which they will, the money is not lost.”  

Eftsure protects businesses from payment fraud with its continuous control monitoring, multi-factor verification, and one-of-a-kind decentralised verification network, which enables businesses to collaborate and secure payments across their supply chains, reducing the risk of fraud and human error.   

For more information or to try Eftsure’s email checker, visit the following link: https://home.eftsure.com.au/data-breach-checker   

About Eftsure   

Eftsure is a market leader in payment fraud prevention. Specifically designed for businesses, our end-to-end solution safeguards more than $216B in B2B payments per year. Our mission is to build a safer business community. With a large and continuously growing database of verified supplier details (the only one of its kind), we use multi-factor verification to give businesses greater knowledge and control over onboarding suppliers, receiving invoices, and making payments. In short, we ensure our customers never pay the wrong people.    

Source: Eftsure