Cybercriminals are truly criminals and are the antithesis of the Robin Hood criminal of storybooks.
Stealing money raised by a church to help homeless and abused women is pretty low. But that's just what a group of hackers did, according to CBS News.
"You kind of have to take a deep breath and you have to trust in the Lord," Richard Pates, the bishop of St. Ambrose Cathedral in Des Moines, Iowa told CBS News, after losing $680,000 in the heist.
The swindle was one example of an increasingly popular cyberheist technique, known as account takeover fraud. Hackers, often located in eastern Europe, target small town institutions or civic groups that may lack sophisticated defenses. They send the target groups an email that looks to be from a friend or the IRS, which prompts the recipients to click on a link. That click then allows a malicious software bug to infect their computer, and steal sensitive data such as bank passwords. Money can then be simply be transferred to the criminal's own account.
Other recent victims of the scheme include the town of Pittsford, N.Y. which recently lost $139,000, and a small-town library in Florida which was hit for $160,000 last year.
For a video with on this story click here: Hackers Steal from church's collection plate
Protection of organizational intellectual property and bank accounts begins within each employee in that organization. The first step is Internet Security Awareness Training. Test and train you staff regularly. Take a Free Phishing Security Test at KnowBe4.
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
