Texas School District Loses $2.3 Million to Phishing Scam, BEC jjill cc, brandsmart cc
Manor Independent School District (MISD) in Texas is investigating an email phishing attack after a series of seemingly normal school-vendor transactions resulted in the loss of an estimated US$2.3 million. According to the statement posted on Twitter, the district is cooperating with the Manor Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and encouraged the community to share any information related to the incident.
[Read: US$1.7 million stolen from North Carolina County after BEC scammers posed as contractor ]
According to local reports , the attack was done across three separate transactions, with the cybercriminals contacting multiple individuals in the district from November to December. Failing to recognize that the bank information was changed, one email recipient responded and followed through with the transactions before recognizing that it was a fraudulent bank account.
[Read: Report: Over 20% of phishing campaigns target Microsoft users ]
Schools and local government institutions have become a target of cybercriminals for business email compromise (BEC) , with losses amounting to millions after failing to recognize discrepancies in suppliers’ and contractors’ email exchanges. As Trend Micro included in their 2020 Predictions , cybercriminals are expected to maximize profit via BEC and phishing by combining old techniques with new technologies. Here are some best practices that can be followed to avoid or defend against these kinds of attacks:
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In the first half of this year, cybersecurity strongholds were surrounded by cybercriminals waiting to pounce at the sight of even the slightest crack in defenses to ravage valuable assets. View the report
The upheavals of 2020 challenged the limits of organizations and users, and provided openings for malicious actors. A robust cybersecurity posture can help equip enterprises and individuals amid a continuously changing threat landscape. View the 2020 Annual Cybersecurity Report
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