CEO impersonation is a social-engineering tactic in which an attacker pretends to be a company executive to make an employee act quickly, usually on payments, gift cards, account changes, or data sharing. The goal is not to break systems; it is to exploit authority, urgency, and trust. In business email compromise (BEC), the message often looks like it came from the CEO or a close executive and may reference real projects, deadlines, or confidential deals to sound authentic.
This tactic matters because executives often have influence over finance and operations, so a convincing request can bypass normal caution. Defenders look for signs such as unusual sender addresses, sudden payment instructions, pressure to keep the request secret, or changes to bank details. Strong defenses include phishing-resistant MFA, approval workflows that require two people, mailbox-rule monitoring, and out-of-band verification through a known-good phone number or chat channel before any transfer is approved.