About

Imported from mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills (skills/detecting-business-email-compromise/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills --skill detecting-business-email-compromise. Copyright stays with the author (Apache-2.0).

Detecting Business Email Compromise

Name: detecting-business-email-compromise
Author: mukul975

Overview

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a sophisticated fraud scheme where attackers impersonate executives, vendors, or trusted partners to trick employees into transferring funds, sharing sensitive data, or changing payment details. Unlike traditional phishing, BEC often contains no malicious links or attachments, relying purely on social engineering. This skill covers detection techniques using email gateway rules, behavioral analytics, and financial process controls.

When to Use

When investigating security incidents that require detecting business email compromise
When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

Email security gateway with BEC detection capabilities
Understanding of organizational financial processes and approval chains
Access to email logs and SIEM platform
Knowledge of social engineering tactics

Key Concepts

BEC Attack Types (FBI IC3 Classification)

CEO Fraud: Attacker impersonates CEO, requests urgent wire transfer
Account Compromise: Employee email compromised, used to request payments from vendors
False Invoice Scheme: Fake invoices from "vendor" with changed bank details
Attorney Impersonation: Impersonates legal counsel for urgent confidential transfers
Data Theft: Requests W-2, tax forms, or PII from HR

Detection Indicators

Urgency and secrecy language ("confidential", "do not discuss with others")
New or changed payment instructions
Executive communication outside normal patterns
Display name matches executive but email domain differs
Reply-to address differs from From address
First-time communication pattern between sender and recipient
Request for gift cards or cryptocurrency

Workflow

Step 1: Configure BEC-Specific Email Rules

Flag emails with VIP display names from external domains
Detect financial keywords combined with urgency language
Alert on first-time sender to finance/accounting staff
Check for Reply-To domain mismatch

Step 2: Deploy Behavioral Analytics

Baseline normal communication patterns per user
Detect anomalous requests (unusual recipient, unusual time, unusual request type)
Monitor for email forwarding rule changes (T1114.003)

Step 3: Implement Financial Controls

Dual-authorization for wire transfers above threshold
Out-of-band verification for payment detail changes (phone callback)
Vendor payment change verification process
Finance team training on BEC red flags

Step 4: Monitor for Account Compromise

Detect impossible travel in email login locations
Alert on email forwarding rule creation
Monitor for mailbox delegation changes
Check for inbox rules hiding BEC-related emails

Tools & Resources

Microsoft Defender for O365 Anti-BEC: Built-in BEC detection
Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense: BEC-specific solution
Abnormal Security: AI-driven BEC detection
FBI IC3 BEC Advisory: https://www.ic3.gov/
FinCEN BEC Advisory: Financial institution guidance

Validation

BEC detection rules trigger on test scenarios
Financial controls prevent unauthorized transfers in drills
Account compromise detection catches simulated attacks
Reduced BEC susceptibility in awareness assessments

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-detecting-busine-4cbca5/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-detecting-busine-4cbca5.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-detecting-busine-4cbca5",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "detecting-business-email-compromise",
  "description": "Detect Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud, where attackers impersonate executives or vendors to trick employees into wire transfers or data disclosure without malicious links, using email gateway rules, behavioral analytics, and financial process controls. Use when investigating a suspected executive/vendor impersonation email or building detection rules for social-engineering fund-transfer fraud.",
  "publisher": "mukul975",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "phishing",
      "email-security",
      "social-engineering",
      "dmarc",
      "awareness",
      "bec",
      "fraud",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Detect Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud, where attackers impersonate executives or vendors to trick employees into wire transfers or data disclosure without malicious links, using email gateway rules, behavioral analytics, and financial process controls. Use when investigating a suspected executive/vendor impersonation email or building detection rules for social-engineering fund-transfer fraud."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills",
      "path": "skills/detecting-business-email-compromise/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/detecting-business-email-compromise/SKILL.md",
      "key": "mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills/skills/detecting-business-email-compromise/SKILL.md"
    },
    "license": "Apache-2.0"
  },
  "instructions": "# Detecting Business Email Compromise\n\n## Overview\nBusiness Email Compromise (BEC) is a sophisticated fraud scheme where attackers impersonate executives, vendors, or trusted partners to trick employees into transferring funds, sharing sensitive data, or changing payment details. Unlike traditional phishing, BEC often contains no malicious links or attachments, relying purely on social engineering. This skill covers detection techniques using email gateway rules, behavioral analytics, and financial process controls.\n\n\n## When to Use\n\n- When investigating security incidents that require detecti",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 869
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-detecting-busine-4cbca5/manifest?version=1.0.0

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