Ordinarily this involves spoofing an email from the recipient's supervisor or manager. Sophisticated employers are hyper-aware of spear phishing threats and, in most cases, train their employees how to identify and report such threats. Business Email Compromise (BEC) A BEC is the type of cyberattack that occurs when a cybercriminal poses as a company employee with the goal of convincing another employee to share confidential or sensitive information or to perform a task requested by the cybercriminal. These attacks are usually carried out using a spear phishing email. A typical BEC scam involves the cybercriminal creating an email that looks like it was sent from a high-level executive within the company. The email will typically claim that some emergency requires the employee take immediate action or provide confidential information. The employee, believing that they are corresponding with the real company executive, grants the request.