USE CASE

Business Email Compromise (BEC) Protection

Stop identity-based fraud before it reaches the inbox and protect your finances and reputation across email and every collaboration tool your team uses.

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Why BEC Protection matters for your business

Business email compromise is consistently ranked as one of the most financially devastating cybercrime categories by the FBI. As organizations increasingly rely on Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace alongside email, attackers have expanded their tactics to follow employees across every communication channel.

The Problem

A spoofed executive or supplier message can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — nine in ten organizations suffered a collaboration tool breach last year.

Our Solutions

Mimecast combines AI-driven language analysis, social graphing, and relationship verification to detect & block identity-based attacks before employees see them.

The Impact

Organizations intercept fraudulent requests before funds move and stop impersonation across email & collaboration tools, protecting the bottom line and partner trust.

Why Mimecast

Mimecast delivers Advanced BEC Protection for email through AI-powered behavioral analysis, identity verification, and employee nudges. It also adds malware, URL, and NLP-driven governance protection across Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Slack — from one cloud platform.

AI-driven language & intent analysis

Advanced BEC Protection uses NLP to detect social engineering patterns, transactional fraud keywords, and writing style anomalies that deviate from a sender's baseline.

Social graphing & relationship verification

Mimecast maps normal interaction patterns to flag out-of-band requests, and evaluates freemail accounts, new domains, and typosquatted variants mimicking trusted partners.

Cross-platform protection

Impersonation Protect blocks inbound mail mimicking executives, while URL and Attachment Protect neutralizes phishing links and malicious files across every platform.

Our Approach

The consequences of neglecting BEC Protection

Financial impact

Fraudulent wire transfers and altered banking details bring forensic, legal, and regulatory costs. For SMBs, a single BEC attack can be catastrophic.

Reputational damage

A weaponized domain or account used to defraud a partner or vendor can mean contract terminations and years of recovery from public breach disclosure.

Sustain operational
resilience

Preventing successful BEC attacks avoids the downstream cascade of forensic fees, accounting freezes, and operational disruption that follows an executive takeover or large-scale financial loss.

Direct benefits and business outcomes

Eliminate fraudulent
financial transfers

Mimecast intercepts BEC and other socially engineered messages before employees see them with automated clawbacks, domain blocking, and activity isolation. No manual IT intervention needed.

Protect the full modern
work surface

Mimecast extends BEC protections to Teams, SharePoint, and Google Workspace from one integrated platform — closing a gap where one in five employees do not verify attachments or URLs.

Reduce SOC overhead and insurance costs

Automating email header and sentiment analysis reduces false positive volume and manual reviews. Demonstrating active BEC controls can also lower cyber insurance premiums.

Sustain operational
resilience

Preventing successful BEC attacks avoids the downstream cascade of forensic fees, accounting freezes, and operational disruption that follows an executive takeover or large-scale financial loss.

Trusted by over 42k customers

Mimecast is proud to protect and support 42,000+ organizations globally, helping them navigate the ever-expanding threat landscape since 2003.

How does Mimecast detect BEC emails that contain no malicious links or attachments?

Mimecast uses specialized NLP to analyze language, tone, and intent rather than relying on payload-based signatures. The engine flags urgency patterns, authority manipulation, and transactional keywords, and cross-references sender identity against established communication history to catch impersonation in real time.

What is social graphing, and how does it stop BEC attacks?

Social graphing maps normal interaction frequencies between employees and their contacts, flagging messages from addresses or domains that deviate from expected patterns. This catches lookalike domains, freemail impersonation, and out-of-band financial requests that would otherwise appear legitimate.

Does Mimecast protect collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, not just email?

Yes. Mimecast extends its protections to URLs and files shared via Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Workspace from a single platform. This matters because nearly three-quarters of security leaders believe they are prepared for collaboration tool attacks, yet nine in ten organizations suffered a breach from these applications within a single year.

How does Mimecast address the human element of BEC attacks?

Mimecast delivers real-time behavioral nudges as contextual warning banners on suspicious messages, reinforcing security awareness at the exact moment an employee is handling a sensitive financial request, whether in their inbox or a collaboration tool.

Does Mimecast's BEC protection support regulatory compliance?

Yes. Mimecast's policy enforcement, audit logging, and risk control frameworks help organizations demonstrate due diligence under GDPR, HIPAA, and financial services regulations. Archiving also extends across Teams, Slack, Zoom, and Google Chat to ensure a complete, compliant record of communications.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) Protection