Business email compromise is when a criminal gets into, or imitates, a mailbox to redirect payments. For Chicago firms that send invoices, pay vendors or move client funds by wire, one convincing email can cost more than a year of IT.
Who gets targeted in Chicago
Manufacturers in Elk Grove Village and the western suburbs run shop-floor PCs, ERP and biometric time clocks. Distributors along the Interstate 55 and Interstate 80 corridors need warehouse Wi-Fi and dependable label printing. Law and accounting firms in the Loop need secure document access and strong email protection.
Firms like these send and receive payments by email every week, which is exactly what attackers look for.
How mailbox takeovers start
A stolen password, a fake login page or a look-alike domain lets an attacker read mail, set hidden forwarding rules and send payment requests that look real.
Locking down Microsoft 365
Multi-factor authentication, conditional access, safe sign-in settings and mail flow rules close the common ways in. Filtering catches look-alike domains and malicious links before they reach the inbox.
Illinois data rules to know
Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) regulates fingerprint and face data, which matters for biometric time clocks.
A hacked mailbox often holds customer records, so an email takeover can become a reportable breach.
Watching for takeover signs
We monitor for suspicious sign-ins, new forwarding rules, account changes and unusual sending patterns. During office hours an engineer acts on alerts by locking the account, resetting credentials and checking what was sent.
Office hours in Chicago
Office hours for Chicago clients are Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central. Email security services is part of full managed IT for Chicago clients, delivered remote-first with on-site help coordinated when it is needed.
Read more about email security services or see all IT services in Chicago.