Talos IR trends: BEC attacks surge, while weaknesses in MFA persist

Business email compromise (BEC) was the top threat observed by Cisco Talos Incident Response (Talos IR) in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for nearly half of engagements, which is more than double what was observed in the previous quarter.  

The most observed means of gaining initial access was the use of compromised credentials on valid accounts, which accounted for 29 percent of engagements. The high number of BEC attacks likely played a significant role in valid accounts being …

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