Cybercrime Squad detectives have charged a man following an investigation into reports of an alleged hacking of a business email server, which netted more than $140,000 earlier this year, NSW Police say.
In April 2017, an Australian-based company was victim to an alleged scam after its mail server was compromised.
An invoice between the design and manufacture business and a client was intercepted during this time and the identity of the email taken over. As a result, the monies were later paid into an unknown and unauthorised account.
The matter was referred to the State Crime Command’s Cybercrime Squad and an investigation was commenced by detectives from the Squad.
Following extensive inquiries, detectives arrested a 43-year-old man at Blacktown yesterday (Wednesday 20 December 2017).
He was taken to Blacktown Police Station and charged with recklessly deal with proceeds of crime.
He was granted conditional bail and will appear before Blacktown Local Court on 11 January 2018.
Investigations are continuing.
"The establishment of the Cybercrime Squad is one of the elements of the NSW Government’s expanding cyber security strategy," Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis said.
"The NSW Police together with its other law enforcement partners are vigorously pursuing reported cyber-related attacks across NSW. The Cybercrime Squad now provides the NSW Police with a new capacity to monitor, detect and investigate this evolving crime type," Detective Superintendent Katsogiannis said.
Reports of cybercrime can be made at any police station or to ACORN: https://www.acorn.gov.au/
The following steps may add another layer of protection from online scam attacks on businesses in online transactions:
- Educate employees at all levels about the importance of not clicking on links in emails or messages, or opening attachments, from people or organisations they don’t know;
- Ensure your servers and networks are updated with the latest security patches and anti-virus software;
- Be especially cautious if messages are very enticing or appealing (they seem too good to be true), or threaten you to take a suggested action;
- If a message seems suspicious, contact the person or business separately to check if they are likely to have sent the message. Use contact details you find through a legitimate source and not those contained in the suspicious message;
- Use a spam filter to block deceptive messages from even reaching your business.
Anyone with information in relation to phishing scams to call Crime Stoppers.
