Hacker stole £700,000 from UK energy company by redirecting payment


British oil and gas company Zephyr Energy says someone stole £700,000 (close to $1 million) from one of its U.S.-based subsidiaries by redirecting a payment meant for a contractor into a hacker-controlled account. In a regulatory filing with the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, the company said it is “working with the corresponding banks and consultants to attempt to recover the diverted funds.”

While the company did not say how the incident occurred, hackers are known to break into email inboxes or accounting systems and use that access to alter bank account and routing numbers during the process of paying someone or clearing an invoice. Known as business email compromise attacks, the FBI said in its most recent annual report published on internet cybercrime earlier in April that these attacks remain one of the top sources of financial losses, totaling more than $3 billion in victim losses during 2025.

Read more…
Source: TechCrunch News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • New TeamSpy Malware Campaign Turns TeamViewer into Spy Tool

    February 20, 2017

    TeamSpy is back and it’s turning TeamViewer into the spying tool that no one wants. According to security firm Heimdal, a new spam campaign emerged over the weekend, carrying the TeamSpy malware which can give hackers full access to a compromised computer. This isn’t a new type of malware whatsoever. In fact, back in 2013, it was ...

  • Europol and Global Cyber Alliance team up to fight cyber-crime

    January 30, 2017

    Europol and the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate on decreasing systemic cyber-risk and improving internet security throughout Europe and beyond. As part of the MoU, Europol and GCA will fight cyber-crime through the exchange of information on cyber-crime trends and joint international projects to increase cyber-security. To this end, ...

  • Smaller firms set to ‘face £52bn in fines’ for security breaches as cyber-crime skyrockets

    January 14, 2017

    British firms were each subjected to an average of almost 230,000 cyber attacks in 2016, according to analysis from business internet service provider Beaming. The average volume of attacks hitting individual company firewalls passed the 1,000 per day mark for the first time in November. Meanwhile, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council suggested that UK firms ...

  • Netflix Users Under Attack As Hackers Try to Steal Credit Card Info

    January 10, 2017

    Security company FireEye detected a new wave of attacks aimed at Netflix users, with cybercriminals now turning to phishing schemes in order to steal their personal information, including credit card data, social security numbers, and other details. Although it seems that the attacks have been suspended, Netflix users in the United States should always keep an ...