Firms warned to be on ‘high alert’ for scam emails
PA MediaBusinesses have been warned to be on high alert after scammers have been targeting Manx firms and their networks.
The government’s Cyber Security Centre has received reports of five businesses being compromised in the last three weeks through scam emails.
Sam Hudson, Cyber Intelligence and Operations Analyst, said there had been a spate of scams targeting the construction industry in October, but in recent weeks a phishing campaign had spread across a broader cross-section of industries.
“It’s a big problem because attackers were getting access to the admin accounts, the files of the business and in one case financial systems,” which had led to significant monetary loss, he said.
A compromise means an attacker has gained unauthorised access to an email account or system, which allows them to take data, move into other systems, impersonate users, and potentially return later to demand payment or carry out further attacks.
‘Higher occurrence’
“It is in a chain, so the attackers get into the email address of one company, and then they send phishing emails out from there to people in their address book,” he said.
“The consequence of that is other companies become compromised as well,” Mr Hudson continued, noting that they may not know a hacker has gained access to an account.
Recently there had been a “much higher occurrence of this happening,” he said, adding that it was “really bad that company after company is being compromised in this way.”
“With this phishing campaign that is going on at the moment, the advice is not just to be more vigilant, because the emails are so convincing, it is to be on high alert with anything with links and attachments,” he said.
Businesses are being warned not to trust unexpected links or attachments, not to rely on the sender’s name or email address and to report emails requiring interaction like entering credentials.
Suspicious emails can be reported to the Cyber Security Centre for the Isle of Man.
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