28/02/2023
Cybercriminals are constantly stepping up their efforts to scam us into parting with sensitive information. And they’re becoming more and more sophisticated in the way they carry out these attacks.
That’s why we’re highlighting two cyberattacks that have hit very close to home in recent months – one involving the South African property industry and the other, BetterHome Group itself. Here’s what happened, and why both serve as a serious reminder that we need to stay on top of our cybersecurity game and be more alert than ever.
One VERY costly lesson
In August last year, Mrs Judith Hawarden paid R5.5 million, for a property she was buying in Johannesburg, into what she thought was a trust account belonging to the seller’s conveyancing attorneys, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS).
What Mrs Hawarden didn’t realise at the time, was that three months earlier, hackers had begun intercepting emails between herself and the conveyancing secretary, and had been able to change the firm’s bank account details on a PDF that was attached to one of the emails. The result was that when she made the deposit into the ‘trust account’, the money immediately disappeared and was untraceable.
Following the incident, Mrs Hawarden sued ENS and last month, the Gauteng High Court found in her favour, saying that ENS had failed her on several counts, including that they had not warned her about the dangers of cyber hacking and spoofing of emails and that they had failed to transmit their banking details safely.
Careful who you trust
Last month, we identified an attack within BetterHome Group that we’ve since traced back to LinkedIn, where scammers have been using the connections between colleagues to create emails that appear to have been sent by one staff member to another. Thanks to our ongoing cybersecurity campaign, we were quickly alerted to the threat and were able to neutralise it.
The common thread
In both cases, the only clue that these emails were the work of cybercriminals was the fact that the email addresses were ‘cloned’ or did not belong to the sender – and in the case of Mrs Hawarden, the difference was almost impossible to spot: ensafrica.com vs ensafirca.com.
That’s why it’s so important to apply the PAUSE approach to keep your organisation safe. Remember S for sender! Inspect the sender’s email address carefully before replying or taking action.
Stay vigilant and let’s keep working together to keep your business safe!
