Security and compliance specialist Proofpoint (www.proofpoint.com) has said that manufacturers are among those most targeted by ‘business e-mail compromise’ (BEC) attacks, with the number of incidents increasing by almost half in recent years.

Proofpoint’s senior vice-president of cyber-security strategy, Ryan Kalember, said: “Our data indicates no correlation between the size of the company and the BEC attack volume.

“Larger companies make attractive targets, due to having more funds to draw on and greater organisational complexity to hide behind, irrespective of their stricter financial controls.

“Smaller companies may not yield the same returns, but the relative absence of financial controls makes them more vulnerable.

“Around 75% of our customers were hit by at least one attempted BEC attack in the last three months of 2016, and it only takes one to cause significant damage.

“Our research shows that static policies cannot keep up, as attackers are constantly changing their socially engineered messages. Organisations need detection, authentication, visibility and data loss prevention to ensure that they don’t fall victim.”