Message from General Computer Development 

Beware of Wire Transfer Fraud

What would you do if you received an email from your CEO or CFO asking you to make an immediate or urgent wire transfer of funds? If you are the person in your organization who is responsible for such tasks and receive requests like this regularly, you may not think twice. However, with the increased sophistication of hackers and cybercriminals, you must Stop, Look, and Think before deciding how to proceed.

Business Email Compromise is an advanced form of spear-phishing which targets employees of businesses that routinely perform wire transfer payments or work with foreign companies or suppliers. This form of cybercrime is steadily on the rise, and companies are losing thousands, even millions of dollars instantly because of a spoofed or compromised email address.

How it Happens:

The scammers target the email accounts of business executives or high-level employees. Either they will gain actual access to those individuals’ email accounts through a targeted phishing attack and wait for the perfect time to take over such as when those employees go on vacation or leave for a business trip, or they will simply spoof the email address and change where the email is sent when it is replied to. This is called header manipulation. Then, they will email an employee within an organization who may be responsible for making wire transfers or handling funds, asking them to process a transaction.

Here are some things to look at when you receive any requests to transfer or wire funds:

• Look closely to verify the email address when you receive a wire transfer or monetary transaction request. Check for any spelling errors or missing letters.
• Call the person who is requesting the transfer directly to verify that the request is legitimate, or follow your corporate verification procedures carefully.
• If you think a request is suspicious in any way, trust your instincts and inform management or IT immediately.
• Look at the real email address before replying to the message.

To prevent YOUR email from being the one that is compromised:

• Never provide your security or account credentials to anyone.
• Do not click on any links or open attachments in emails you receive, unless you are absolutely positive they are safe and from a legitimate sender.

It is best to have a wire transfer process in place that requires more than just an email request. Either a phone call, face-to-face, or multi-person process is best.

1. Office 2013 end of support

Reduce your exposure to security risks by moving to a newer version of Office. Office 2013 will end support on April 11, 2023. Please start upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps, which is designed to receive regular updates, and will help you stay current by getting security updates and our latest features.

2. Save your work in SharePoint and Cloud Storage

It is very important to stay in the habit of saving your data in SharePoint or other cloud storage services you are currently using. This practice saves time and money during data recovery process due to hardware or software failure, or cyber attacks.

3. Apple releases critical security updates

Apple has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in macOS Monterey, iOS and iPadOS, and Safari. An attacker could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected device. Review Apple Security Updates and apply necessary updates as soon as possible:

iPad OS 15.7.
Safari 16

Recommended reads... 

Don't forget to follow us on social media to get the latest updates happening at GCD!