Books

1. Targeting: Criminals target a business by using information available online to build a profile of the company and its executives. 2. Grooming: Employees are sent phishing communications — notably those in the financial or accounts payable department. 3. Sharing information: The victim is convinced he or she is processing a legitimate transaction and agrees to the criminal’s request. 4. Transferring funds: Funds are sent to a bank account controlled by the criminal actor(s).

BEC IS A SOCIAL ENGINEERING SCAM

The tricky part about BEC is that it isn’t primarily achieved through malware or hacking — it uses social engineering. These criminal actors create believable scenarios that can trick an employee into transferring funds.

Social engineering is the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential information or taking action to support fraudulent activity.

It is in our nature to trust and want to help. Cybercriminals use psychology and human nature to entice victims to bypass important security controls. In general, criminal actors deceive employees by presenting themselves as someone who can and should be trusted, and then take advantage of emotions to encourage actions outside of standard protocol.

HOW TO HELP PREVENT BEC

Thoroughly vet payment change requests: A request for payment accompanied by a change in receiving account should always be closely examined.

Employees should contact executives, vendors or clients using an alternate communication channel to verify the request and the new account information. This contact must be made using a trusted phone number already on file for a known contact at the organization, not the phone number provided in the email, text or social media message, to verify the individual is authorized to make the request.

Pause to verify: When asked to verify a wire transfer, employees should delay the transaction until additional verifications can be performed, and require dual approval for any wire transfer request that meets certain highrisk criteria. High risk criteria for fund transactions could include a dollar amount over a specific threshold, a change in bank accounts for a known client or vendor, wire transfers to countries outside normal patterns, wires for new clients or vendors, wire instructions coming from an unknown person/email allegedly representing a known client/vendor, and all wires requested by senior leadership within own organization.

Keep it simple: Businesses should limit the number of employees within that business who have the authority to approve and/or conduct wire transfers.

Create an environment of trust: Many BEC scams are a result of criminal actors posing as senior leaders within organizations. Employees should feel comfortable pausing to validate a senior leader’s funds transfer request via phone or in person without worry.

Employees should be encouraged to resist good natured conditioning to help and temper their eagerness to prioritize requests from leadership.

PREPARE FOR BEC AT YOUR BUSINESS

The FBI considers BEC to be the most financially damaging scams in the U.S. Employers should take action in their business to ensure leadership and employees understand the threat of this scam, and how to identify BEC red flags and reduce risk.

It’s important that employers speak with their employees to ensure they understand the financial stakes and continue to watch trends in business fraud.

How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race

Negotiation expert Kwame Christian’s motto is, “The best things in life are on the other side of difficult conversations.” If we want a more equitable workplace, and a more equitable world, we have to talk to each other about race. But, for so many of us, that’s easier said than done. Many people avoid conversations about race because of fear — fear of discomfort, damaging important relationships, being misunderstood, “cancelled,” ostracized. How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race equips the reader with the skills needed to make these crucial conversations easier and more productive. This book is for anyone who has ever struggled to turn that passion into persuasion or been too afraid to speak up at work (or outside of it).

How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race: Practical Tools for Necessary Change in the Workplace and Beyond Kwame Christian $26.95

BenBella Books Available 9/13/2022 256 pages

You Owe You

For anyone who feels like success is for others, that only certain people get to have their dreams fulfilled, Eric Thomas’s You Owe You is their wake-up call. His urgent message to stop waiting for inspiration to strike and take control of one’s life is a message he wishes someone had given him when he was a teenager — lost, homeless, failing in school, and dealing with the challenges of being a young Black man in America. Thomas’s secrets of success have already helped hundreds of thousands on their journey, but this is his first guide to show how to start today, right now. Readers are shown that these critical first steps include deeply understanding themselves and the world around them, finding their why, accepting that they may have to give up something good for something great, and constantly stretching toward their potential. No matter where we are on our journey toward greatness, we owe it to ourselves to become fully, authentically ourself. And Eric Thomas’s You Owe You can help get us there.

You Owe You: Ignite Your Power, Your Purpose, and Your Why

Eric Thomas, Ph.D. $27

Rodale Books Available 9/13/2022 288 pages

Why Innovation Fails

Exploring the do’s and don’ts of sustainable corporate innovation, this book explains the most frequently made mistakes and highlights the most common pitfalls in the innovation process. To remain successful, organizations must be able to respond effectively to the fast pace of change or even stay one step ahead of it. To make this possible, it is crucial to look at the future in the right way. This means embracing uncertainty, seizing opportunities and recognizing threats in good time. Through the author’s insightful and knowledgeable text, readers will gain greater insight into the technological evolutions of the next 10 years and discover how this insight can be turned into a concrete approach that will build future-proof and successfully innovating companies and organizations.

Why Innovation Fails: And How to Succeed in Seven Steps

Joachim De Vos $40

Lannoo Publishers Available 9/15/2022 320 pages