What is CEO Fraud Phishing? (Why Executives Are at Increased Risk)

Picture this: you’re a C-suite leader going about your day when someone thanks you for attending a video call. You know they must be mistaken because you haven’t been on any video calls, but the employee produces an image of what seems to be you leading the meeting.

How would you explain that?

Stranger things have happened in today’s CEO fraud phishing environment.

Download the eBook, How to Spot and Thwart Phishing Scams: A Guide for Businesses.

New video editing and AI technology allows hackers to digitally mimic your likeness. In the not-so-distant future, CEO fraud phishing tactics may make victims question their own reality. Situations like this lead some technology leaders to believe that a new era of fraud might already be under way.

You’ve heard the age-old adage, “With great power comes great responsibility,” but with advancements in AI (artificial intelligence), extended reality, greater computing power and smarter devices, a more accurate phrase may be, “With great technology, comes great power.”

So, what exactly is CEO fraud phishing, and what can you do to prevent it from happening to you?

What is CEO Fraud Phishing?

CEO fraud phishing (also sometimes known as whale phishing) is a spear phishing technique where scammers impersonate C-suite level executives to gain access to a company’s network and/or sensitive information.

How Does CEO Fraud Phishing Work?

Within the past decade, technological advancements have propelled CEO fraud phishing techniques to new, very dangerous, heights.

With CEO fraud phishing, scammers use social engineering—collecting information found online through websites like LinkedIn—to determine a company’s employee network. They also use learned behaviors and human tendencies to prey on victims.

In CEO fraud phishing, the scammer doesn’t just target an executive by impersonating company leaders. Often, the scammer lies dormant in the company’s network and monitors their communications to cherry pick the victim they want to target.

While other tactics are certainly present, the majority of CEO fraud phishing is executed by sending an email to a targeted executive requesting to change financial account information. Once a scammer has tricked an executive into changing bill pay information, money is transferred into the scammer’s bank account.

Alternatively, a phisher may opt to install a malicious software, known as ransomware, on an executive’s device, locking their important files until they agree to pay a ransom in exchange.

Still, recent claims suggest that scammers may already be attempting to utilize a type of synthetic media, known as deepfakes, to commit CEO fraud phishing attacks.

What Are Deepfakes, and How Are They Used in CEO Fraud Phishing?

Deepfakes use AI to impersonate the likeness of a person in a video or other form of digital media.

Scammers using deepfake videos digitally alter a person’s face and/or body to appear to be someone influential within the company, which can then be used maliciously or to spread false information.

A notable example occurred in the summer of 2022 when the CCO of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, claimed scammers used a deepfake of him to trick contacts into taking meetings.

To date, there have been no definitively confirmed cases of scammers using deepfake technology during live video calls. However, audio deepfakes have been used to impersonate people over the phone, and video deepfakes have been shared on social media to boost support of crypto scams. A deepfake video of Elon Musk promoting crypto scams went viral in the spring of 2022.

Regardless of whether live deepfakes could eventually create real-world damage, it’s important we stay on top of this threat and up to date on the latest CEO fraud phishing methods to better protect yourself and your businesses.

What Are the Impacts of CEO Fraud Phishing?

CEO fraud phishing can (and has) resulted in major financial losses for businesses across every industry. This is why CEO fraud phishing is such a threat. Some companies are unable to recover from the financial losses and risk closing their businesses.

What’s more concerning though is not how much CEO fraud phishing has already cost U.S. businesses, but rather the potential CEO fraud phishing has to create monumental damage in the future.

It’s clear that protection against CEO fraud phishing should be a priority for executives to avoid the negative impacts it can create.

How Do I Protect Myself and My Business Against CEO Fraud Phishing?

Humans will always make mistakes, but fortunately, there are solutions that can help mitigate those risks.

Adding a next generation anti-phishing solution with a strong endpoint detection and response (EDR) can significantly reduce the chances of attempted phishing scams making their way to your employees, including executives—thereby reducing the chance for mistakes and for CEO fraud phishing incidents to occur.

As great as it is to have automated technology solutions as your first line of defense, it should never be your only method of phishing prevention. Even the most robust technology solutions cannot 100% eliminate the chances of receiving a fraudulent email or being the victim or target of CEO fraud phishing.

Therefore, anti-phishing training for employees should be seen as a vital part of your phishing prevention plan. If every employee receives proper phishing awareness education, they will know how to spot scams, like CEO fraud phishing, and be far less likely to fall for them.

Start by designing a rigorous user education program that not only helps your team members identify fraudulent emails, but also provides specific guidance for how to handle suspected phishing. You should also test users with simulated phishing attempts.

It’s also recommended that companies regularly spread awareness by sending recurring reminders to employees about the dangers of phishing and how to stay vigilant.

For busy executives with different priorities competing for their attention, an educational program that keeps phishing prevention top of mind can yield the best results—especially when we know there are concerning CEO fraud phishing threats on the horizon.

Should I Work With an IT Partner To Prevent CEO Fraud Phishing?

As CEO fraud phishing scams continue to advance, you may find that providing in-house phishing prevention solutions is no longer your best option.

Tell-tale signs of phishing are changing, there are too many anti-phishing solutions to choose from and you’re overwhelmed trying to monitor all possible phishing activity in real time. On top of that, technology is constantly evolving, and tools are always changing.

If this sounds familiar, it might be time to partner with an IT provider who can assess your current infrastructure, determine security needs and implement the proper technology solution.

Learn More About CEO Fraud Phishing and How To Protect What Matters Most.

Warren Averett Technology Group offers a comprehensive CEO fraud phishing prevention solution that can be deployed on all computers throughout your network.

Our solution uses artificial intelligence to detect and remove known and unknown attacks to help prevent phishing emails from ever reaching your inbox.

If you’re looking to protect your business against CEO fraud phishing, connect with a Warren Averett Technology Group expert to learn more.