Spear Phishing in Florida Nearly Leads to Half Million Dollar Loss

Orange Park City Hall nearly lost $500,000 from the city’s bank account at Wells Fargo, according to Security Info Watch.

An email with an attachment was sent to an employee. Once the attachment was opened, similar emails were sent to other employees and they also opened the attachment. Opening the attachment introduced a virus into the town’s computer system that allowed the hacker to tap into information connected to the town’s Wells Fargo bank account, and initiated a $491,000 transfer to Deutsche bank. With quick incident response, they were able to get the money back.

The hack did not include the theft of any information about business residential and commercial customers that had done business with the town.

Educate your employees never to open an attachment on an email unless they’re expecting it, even if you think you know who it’s coming from.