Social engineering scams, one of the oldest tricks in the financial fraud book, still threaten financial institutions and other businesses through malware, ransomware and email attacks, per San Mateo, Calif.-based Agari.

Some 60% of more than 200 U.S. security leaders surveyed, by Agari and Information Security Media Group, know they either were or might have been social engineering victims during the past year, and 94% recognize social engineering, including spear phishing, as a significant business threat. In addition, 65% of those attacks involved employees' login credentials, and 17% concerned financial accounts.

The techniques cybercriminals are opting to choose right now should put finance departments on high alert. What makes these scams more dangerous is their development. "If you are thinking about the old social engineering attacks, like the Nigerian scams, those took a rather naïve person to believe it," Markus Jakobsson, author (Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams) and Agari's chief scientist, said. The enterprise facing attacks are very plausible because they are business email compromises disguised as everyday work activities such as processing invoices or acquisitions. "At work, it is your responsibility to take care of things that look like work."