Hacker group targets CFOs worldwide

A hacker group, known as the ‘London Blue’ has reportedly compiled a list of 35,000 chief financial officers, including some at the world’s biggest banks and mortgage companies, so as to target them with fraudulent requests to transfer money.

London Blue is the latest group to focus on “business email compromise” campaigns, according to the cyber threat detection company Agari, which found a list of 50,000 targets, most of whom worked.in accounting departments, reports ITpro.

Part of the Agari report said, “This report demonstrates that cybercriminal groups continue to evolve and are using formal business strategies and structure to more effectively carry out their scams. London Blue use of legitimate commercial sales prospecting tools shows the out-of-box thinking these groups employ to identify new targets. The pure scale of the group’s target repository is evidence that BEC attacks are a threat to all businesses, regardless of size or location.

“Of the ‘London Blue’ hit list, 71% of targets held the title CFO, while the remainder were senior members of finance teams including finance directors, controllers and members of accounting. The majority of targets are based in the US, with remaining targets based in a host of nations including Spain, the UK, Finland, and Egypt.”

ITPro, who said that Nigerians were the mastermind of the hacker group revealed the nature of the emails.

It reported, “the BEC attack emails London Blue launches typically contain no malware; the group instead sends fraudulent payment requests to finance teams. As a result, the emails are difficult to detect by the range of counter-measures firms typically employ to block harmful material.”

(PUNCH)