Business email compromise is a scam where criminals pretend to be someone trusted, perhaps a finance officer, customer or partner, so that money is moved, payments signed off or data handed over. Plan 1 of Defender for Office 365 defends against it.
Also called business email compromise.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains BEC in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- WHERE
Limits a SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE to just the rows meeting a condition. Omit it, and the statement hits every row.
- OVER
Gives a T-SQL window function its window: PARTITION BY, ORDER BY and, if wanted, a ROWS or RANGE frame. Rankings and running totals can then be worked out while every row is kept.
- Microsoft 365
Formerly Office 365, Microsoft's software-as-a-service productivity suite. A Microsoft Entra tenant provides its identity, and its data is not governed by Azure RBAC.
Related terms
- Automatic attack disruption
A Microsoft Defender XDR feature that links signals into a high-confidence incident and, while ransomware, business email compromise or a similar attack is still in progress, contains the affected accounts and devices on its own. Security staff can reverse these actions.
- Defender for Office 365 Plan 1
The entry tier of Defender for Office 365. Safe Links, Safe Attachments and impersonation protection guard mail and collaboration tools against phishing, business email compromise and zero-day malware. Bundled with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, and from 1 July 2026 with Office 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E3 too.