Hackers posing as CEOs over email is increasing
Callous con artists are targeting people who have already been a victim of timeshare fraud to steal more of their cash, it was claimed today.
No, you’re not being paranoid. Yes, that urgent email from the CEO could actually be an evil plot.
At least, that’s what researchers from global telecommunications company Verizon found in its 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report published earlier this year.
The cybersecurity report, which analysed over 55,000 data breaches and hacking attempts across 65 countries, discussed the rising trend of financial pretexting, which are cyber scams where hackers obtain the email accounts of high-level business executives, or use email addresses with usernames and domains very similar to the execs in question.
This lets them impersonate CEOs in emails to company staff — particularly those in finance and HR.
Finance employees get an email from a scammer posing as the CEO, requesting for a wire transfer of cash or for fake invoices to be processed.