Our team continuously monitors the headlines for the latest accounts payable (AP) and security news. We bring you all the essential stories in our cyber brief so your team can stay secure.
Global fraud surge highlights ongoing risks in legacy payments
Global fraud losses have reached an estimated $579 billion, driven by increasingly sophisticated and technology-enabled scams.
Nasdaq Verafin’s 2026 report highlights how financial crime is becoming more industrialized, with attackers targeting both digital and traditional payment channels. Despite the rise of real-time payments, legacy methods such as checks remain in use and are becoming increasingly vulnerable as AI-enabled tactics evolve.
Finance leaders are increasingly treating fraud prevention as a financial performance issue, not just a compliance task.
New research highlighted by PYMNTS shows many CFOs now view fraud controls as part of cash flow and margin protection strategies. As B2B payment volumes grow, even small fraud losses can accumulate quickly across large transaction volumes.
AI deepfakes continue to heighten risks for finance teams
Experts are again sounding the alarm that deepfake audio and video could significantly increase business email compromise and executive impersonation scams in 2026.
These attacks may mimic the voice or appearance of senior leaders requesting urgent payments or confidential data. For finance teams, it heightens the importance of verification controls that don’t rely solely on any one factor when approving high value transactions.
“Scam states” draw drug trade comparisons as geopolitical pressures mount
Governments and analysts are warning that industrial-scale scam compounds across Southeast Asia are becoming deeply entrenched criminal hubs, similar to how black-market drug trades have become embedded in local economies elsewhere.
Cambodia says it plans to shut down remaining online scam centers by April after targeting hundreds of suspected sites since 2025. However, experts caution that many operations simply relocate across the region, particularly between Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Some analysts now describe parts of the region as emerging “scam states,” where organized networks run large-scale fraud operations targeting victims worldwide.
Meta has removed more than 150,000 accounts linked to organized scam networks operating from SEA compounds.
The takedown followed a multinational investigation involving authorities from the US, UK, Australia and several Asian countries. Many accounts were tied to fraud operations in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos running romance scams, investment fraud and impersonation schemes targeting victims worldwide.
New report: BEC ranks among top cyber incidents in 2025
Business email compromise (BEC) remains a major financial cyber risk according to industry research. In its 2026 DFIR Threat Report, CyberCX found BEC was the second most common incident type its responders handled in 2025, showing how attackers continue to exploit trusted payment and vendor relationships.
Cyber extortion ranked next. Drawing on frontline investigations, the report highlights the dominance of financially motivated cybercrime and the growing focus on payment processes and sensitive financial data as prime targets for attackers.
