Vendor email compromise reporting rates were dramatically low.
Vendor email compromise is emerging as a more effective and financially dangerous cyberattack than traditional business email compromise, particularly across the EMEA region.
According to a report by Abnormal AI released at Infosecurity Europe 2025, Infosecurity Magazine reports that nearly half of recipients in EMEA engaged with VEC messages, a rate 90 percent higher than for BEC.
Meanwhile VEC reporting rates lagged drastically at just 0.2 percent. Unlike BEC attacks, which typically impersonate executives, VEC exploits third-party vendors, making detection harder for employees accustomed to routine external communications.
Over $300 million in attempted theft via VEC was tracked over the year, the report found, with telecommunications, energy, and hospitality among the most vulnerable sectors.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
