1.888.900.DRIZ (3749)
The Driz Group
  • Managed Services
    • Web Application Security >
      • Schedule WAF Demo
    • Virtual CISO
    • Compliance >
      • SOC1 & SOC2
      • GDPR
    • Third-Party Risk Management
    • Vulnerability Assessment >
      • Free Vulnerability Assessment
  • About us
    • Testimonials
    • Meet The Team
    • Resources
    • In the news
    • Careers
    • Subsidiaries
  • Contact
    • Newsletter
  • How WAF Works
  • Blog
  • Managed Services
    • Web Application Security >
      • Schedule WAF Demo
    • Virtual CISO
    • Compliance >
      • SOC1 & SOC2
      • GDPR
    • Third-Party Risk Management
    • Vulnerability Assessment >
      • Free Vulnerability Assessment
  • About us
    • Testimonials
    • Meet The Team
    • Resources
    • In the news
    • Careers
    • Subsidiaries
  • Contact
    • Newsletter
  • How WAF Works
  • Blog

Cybersecurity Blog

Thought leadership. Threat analysis. Cybersecurity news and alerts.

6/16/2019

0 Comments

Another Canadian City Falls Victim to Phishing Email, Loses Half a Million Dollars as a Result

 
phishing email city of burlington

Another Canadian City Falls Victim to Phishing Email, Loses Half a Million Dollars as a Result 

The City of Burlington, Ontario recently revealed that it fell victim to a phishing email, resulting in the loss of the City’s funds worth half a million dollars.

In a statement, the City of Burlingtonsaid that phishing email was sent to City staff requesting for the change of the banking account information of an established City vendor. As a result of the phishing email, the City said, a single wire transfer of funds worth approximately half a million dollars was sent to the bank account controlled by an unknown attacker or attackers last May 16.

The City said it only discovered it was a victim of fraud last May 23. The cyber incident has been reported to authorities and criminal investigations are underway by the appropriate authorities, the City said.

What Is Phishing Email?

Phishing emails are malicious emails used by cyber-attackers to launch attacks against their victims. Traditional phishing email contains a malicious attachment, that is, when clicked, downloads and installs malware into the victim’s computer. Traditional phishing email may also contain a malicious link, that is, when clicked leads to a malicious website that hosts malware and from there, the malware is downloaded and installed into the victim’s computer.

In recent years, cyber-attackers have weaponized the emails to commit fraud, known as Business Email Compromise (BEC). BEC attackers target small, medium and large organizations, as well as individuals. Prior to sending the phishing emails, BEC attackers monitor and study their selected victims.

Targeted organizations and individuals are those that regularly perform wire transfer payments. In a BEC attack, an email address of a high-level employee or an executive involved with wire transfer payments are either spoofed or compromised, resulting in the loss of funds.

BEC Attacks

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as of July 12, 2018, BEC became a 12 billion dollar scam. The FBI said that from October 2013 to May 2018, a total of 78,617 BEC incidents were reported worldwide, with loss to this scam amounting to US$12.5 billion.

In April this year, another Canadian city, the City of Ottawa, revealed that it fell victim to a similar attack. Based on the report released by the Office of the Auditor General of the City of Ottawa, on July 6, 2018, the City Treasurer received an email which appeared to be from the City Manager.

This email, which was later identified as a spoofed email, requested that a wire transfer in the amount of US$97,797.20 be processed for the completion of an acquisition. On the same day the spoofed email was received, with the City Treasurer’s approval, US$97,797.20 was sent to the bank account controlled by malicious actors.

The said amount was transferred from one bank account to another, with a portion of the amount ending up in one of the bank accounts monitored by the U.S. Secret Service. The City of Ottawa was contacted by the U.S. Secret Service that the funds had been seized. The City of Ottawa, through its City Solicitor, filed a petition before the U.S. Government, asserting the City’s claim on the seized funds. It’s still unclear how much would the City of Ottawa eventually recover.

Spoofed and Compromised Emails

BEC attackers trick their victims into wiring funds into bank accounts they control by spoofing or compromising email accounts belonging to persons in authority, in particular, those in charge of approving the release of funds. Email spoofing refers to the sending of an email which is made to appear as though it was sent by someone other than the actual sender.

Many BEC attackers purchase a domain name similar to the target organization’s domain in order to own an email address that closely resembles the target organization, for instance, “xocompany.com” is similar to “xoc0mpany.com”. Attackers send this spoofed email hoping that the receiver wouldn’t notice the wrong email address.

Email spoofing can also be achieved by an attacker by manipulating the visible email header. Each email contains two headers, one visible and the other one that isn’t readily visible. The visible header shows the typical "From" which contains the email address of the sender.

This visible header can be changed by the attackers, that is, it can show a correctly-spelled email address that’s familiar to the email receiver. If the email receiver checks the not readily visible header, also known as “SMTP envelope”, the real email address of the malicious sender can be seen.

BEC attackers also launch their phishing emails by compromising legitimate emails, for instance, an email address of the organization’s CEO. BEC is also known as “CEO scam” because of the growing spoofing and compromised of CEO emails.

In a compromised email, the attackers gain total access to a legitimate email account. One way an attacker gains unauthorized access to a legitimate email is through another phishing email, tricking the victim to click on the malicious attachment or link, resulting in the installation of malware into the victim’s computer.

An example of malware is the keylogger – a type of malware that records every keystroke made by a computer user, capturing information such as usernames and passwords to emails and sending these data remotely to the attackers. Armed with these stolen login details, attackers can then access the victim’s email. From this compromised email, attackers can send an email ordering a lower-ranked employee in charge of releasing funds to proceed with the bogus wire transfer.

When you need assistance protecting your business from phishing attacks, help is a phone call away. Connect with ustoday and take a step forward to better cybersecurity posture.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Steve E. Driz, I.S.P., ITCP

    Picture
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All
    0-Day
    2FA
    Access Control
    Advanced Persistent Threat
    AI
    Artificial Intelligence
    ATP
    Awareness Training
    Botnet
    Bots
    Brute Force Attack
    CASL
    Cloud Security
    Compliance
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Cryptocurrency
    Cyber Attack
    Cyberattack Surface
    Cyber Awareness
    Cyber Espionage
    Cybersecurity
    Cyber Security
    Cyber Security Consulting
    Cyber Security Insurance
    Cyber Security Risk
    Cyber Security Threats
    Data Breach
    Data Governance
    Data Leak
    Data Leak Prevention
    DDoS
    Email Security
    Fraud
    GDPR
    Hacking
    IoT
    Malware
    MFA
    Microsoft Office
    Mobile Security
    Network Security Threats
    Phishing Attack
    Privacy
    Ransomware
    Remote Access
    SaaS Security
    Social Engineering
    Supply Chain Attack
    Supply-Chain Attack
    Third-Party Risk
    Virtual CISO
    Vulnerability
    Vulnerability Assessment
    Web Applcation Security
    Web-applcation-security
    Web Application Firewall
    Web Application Protection
    Web Application Security
    Web Protection
    Windows Security
    Zero Trust

    RSS Feed

Picture

1.888.900.DRIZ (3749)

Managed Services

Picture
Web Application Security
​Virtual CISO
Compliance
​Vulnerability Assessment
Free Vulnerability Assessment
Privacy Policy | CASL

About us

Picture
Testimonials
​Meet the Team
​Subsidiaries
​Contact us
​Blog
​
Jobs

Resources & Tools

Picture
​Incident Management Playbook
Sophos authorized partner logo
Picture
© 2023 Driz Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Photo used under Creative Commons from GotCredit