According to a local news source from Boston, the Town of Franklin recently became the next victim to a phishing attack, costing over $500K.
"The scam was part of “a recent ‘spear phishing attack,’” Town Administrator Jamie Hellen said in a news release. A total of $522,000 “was misdirected to a third party.”
Spear phishing is an email targeted at a specific individual or department within an organization that appears to be from a trusted source. It's actually cybercriminals attempting to steal confidential information.
Town police are currently working with state and federal officials on a criminal investigation, and the town has also hired an attorney to work on this, according to the release.
"The town’s data is secure", the release said, and the scam didn’t include a security breach.
“I also wish to note that this incident has not affected the Town’s general fund,” Hellen said in the release. “It occurred in connection with a non-general fund account. The Town is implementing new procedures and protocols to limit future incidents of this type and urges all to guard against increased fraud.”
Phishing attacks are slowly taking more and more victims of small and large organizations everyday. New-school security awareness training can provide your users with the proper training to prepare them for a potential attack.
Boston.com has the full story.
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