Feds: Food shipments targeted by BEC attacks

The FBI, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of Agriculture have warned that U.S. food suppliers had hundreds of thousands of dollars in shipments stolen in business email compromise attacks, according to CNN. Threats actors masquerading as food company executives delivered phishing emails luring suppliers to send powdered milk shipments, with some suppliers reporting that they have already shipped more than $100,000 worth of milk products prior to discovering the attack, the joint advisory noted. Nearly 20,000 BEC complaints amounting to $2.4 billion in estimated losses have been reported to the FBI last year. Moreover, third parties are being increasingly impersonated in BEC attacks, said Abnormal Security Director of Threat Intelligence Crane Hassold. "We've been seeing a rapidly growing number of BEC attacks impersonating external third parties, primarily supposed vendors or suppliers. If a company produces or sells a tangible [business-to-business] product, theyre a potential target of an attack like this," said Hassold.