CYBER CRIMINALS USE YOUR OWN WEBSITE AGAINST YOU IN A SCARY NEW SCAM

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CYBER CRIMINALS USE YOUR OWN WEBSITE AGAINST YOU IN A SCARY NEW SCAM

AUSTRALIA WIDE

Qbit Computers has identified a new and very dangerous type of scam targeting Australian Business. These scams are so good that we believe the only defence right now is to warn as many businesses as possible.

What is new about these attacks is the uncanny realism of the emails addressed to a business’s finance staff from their managers. The emails contain perfect English and are formatted to look exactly like your internal email system.

The perpetrators have thoroughly researched the target business find out who is management and who is the accounts payable person.  They use the targeted businesses “meet the team” page on the business’s websites as well as social media including Facebook and LinkedIn. With this information they send an email using a hacked third party server to look exactly like it has come from senior management to accounts payable. SPAM and anti-virus filters do not pick it up as each email is sent manually. The below email is from the scammer pretending to be Dave Musarra.

From: David Musarra [mailto:david@qbit.com.au]
Sent: Thursday, 10 August 2016 9:13 AM
To: Yvonne Bauermeister
Subject: Process

What is our limit on same day transfers? I need you to make some payments.

Regards,
David Musarra
Sent from Mobile Outlook..

Only the keenest eye will spot that the return email address is slightly changed when they hit reply

Actions to take to prevent this happening to you company.

·         Warn all your staff, especially your finance staff

·         Seriously consider taking your finance people off your website

·         Use a contact us form on your website, do not list email address

·         Ensure that all staff check payment instructions from management using another means before acting on them such as SMS/text or phone.

Qbit Computers is a Perth based IT company supporting small to medium organisations with their IT needs. Owned by Fabio Suffell and David Musarra, Qbit employs 13 people. We strive to give our customers exceptional service and regularly visit and inform them of current cyber threats facing their business.