OCCIP issues alert on business email scams
August 31, 2026 / By ICBA
The Treasury Department’s Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection issued an alert on business email compromise (BEC) scams.
Details: In the alert to financial institutions, the OCCIP said:
BEC is a coordinated fraud operation that compromises trust in business communications and converts that trust into unauthorized movement of money.
The key risk is that a technically legitimate payment instruction may be commercially fraudulent because the surrounding identity, vendor, or approval process has been compromised.
Because BEC thrives when trust is assumed across email and payments, financial institutions reduce risk when trust is continuously verified across identity, communication, authorization, and money movement.
ICBA Resources: Cybersecurity resources for community banks are available on ICBA's Cyber and Data Security resource center.
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