FBI Cybersecurity Resources
FBI Cybersecurity Resources
Summary
The FBI provides threat intelligence and practical resources about cyber scams targeting small businesses. Their guidance covers business email compromise (BEC), ransomware, and social engineering tactics used by cybercriminals—including how to recognize them and what to do if you’re targeted.
What You Need to Know
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): Scammers impersonate executives, vendors, or business partners to request wire transfers or sensitive data. The FBI reports this as the costliest cybercrime category for businesses.
- Ransomware: Criminals encrypt your files and demand payment. The FBI’s guidance: don’t pay (payment doesn’t guarantee data recovery), maintain offline backups, and report incidents immediately.
- Social engineering: The most common attack vector—scammers use impersonation, urgency, and authority to pressure you into revealing credentials or transferring money.
- Report incidents: File reports with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). More reports help the FBI track trends and identify emerging threats.
- No-cost resources: All FBI consumer and business resources are freely available—no security expertise required.
Take Action Today
- Verify before you pay: Any request for a wire transfer, payment, or financial information should be verified through a second channel (phone call, in-person). Use a known phone number, not one from the suspicious email.
- Back up everything: Maintain offline backups of critical data. If hit by ransomware, backups are often your only recovery path.
- Report quickly: If you believe you’ve been targeted, file a report at IC3.gov. Even if no money was lost, your report helps protect others.
Related Pages
- sba-cybersecurity — Basic prevention steps
- cisa-cyber-essentials — Technical implementation guide
- ftc-cybersecurity-for-small-business — Legal and compliance perspective
- password-management — Credential hygiene to prevent BEC
- cyber-resource-center — Master page with all resources