Business email compromise (BEC) is a prevalent cyber attack, where the attacker impersonates a figure of authority or legitimacy (e.g., the CEO, a business associate), and asks the target to wire money to a bank account by the attacker. Based on FBI estimates, in the past several years, attackers have been able to steal over $22B in fraudulent wire transfers. Such attacks have affected a very wide range of individuals and institutions, from the world’s largest and most sophisticated companies (e.g., Google, Facebook), to government and public entities, and even individuals whose house down payment was stolen by an attacker pretending to be their mortgage broker.

In this project, we will be working on large email datasets provided by Barracuda Networks, a large email provider, to map out the financial and networking infrastructure used by attackers to launch these attacks. The end goal of this project is to be able to make it harder for attackers to launch such attacks, by identifying choke points in the attackers' network.

This is an UNPAID research project.

Faculty Advisor

Project Timeline

  • Earliest starting date: 9/6/21
  • End date: 5/1/22
  • Number of hours per week of research expected during Fall 2021: ~20

Candidate requirements

  • Skill sets: Knowledge of Python, data science skills, experience with Spark preferred.
  • Student eligibility: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, master’s
  • International students on F1 or J1 visa: eligible
  • Academic Credit Possible: Yes