Key insights from our BEC (Business Email Compromise) Study using 50K emails counterchecked with HaveIbeenPwned.com.
Key Insights based on the chart above
Business Emails are relatively safer
- Majority (20,924) are not compromised (Null)
- Still, 16,689 appear in external breaches and 5,856 in personal exposures.
- This suggests that while many business emails remain safe, a non-trivial share (over 50%) face compromise risks, mostly from large-scale breaches.
Gmail accounts show higher compromise rates
- Only 75 safe (Null) vs. 5,565 in breaches and 3,359 in personal exposure.
Hotmail and Yahoo show mixed risks
- Hotmail: 36 safe vs. 2,970 breached and 2,143 personal exposure.
- Yahoo: 6 safe vs. 1,798 breached and 1,480 personal exposure.
- Similar to Gmail, the vast majority of Hotmail/Yahoo addresses are compromised.
Comparative Risk Profile
- BusinessEmail: More than half remain safe (Null).
- Free Providers (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo): Almost all have some form of compromise, meaning free emails are much riskier in the dataset. This indicates Gmail accounts are disproportionately compromised — only <1% remain uncompromised in the dataset.