Have you been “vacation–squatted”?

28 August 2018

During vacation time we can see an increase in cyber frauds and especially email frauds. The sending defrauders take advantage of people when they are in a relaxed mode, chilling in the sun with no thoughts at all about work. When you are out of the office, you might not be able to take an extra check with your co-workers when something unusual but allegedly urgent pops up. So instead of looking into it yourself, you transfer it to a co-worker still at the office asking them to help out.

Imagine that the email you are transferring contains an invoice with the subject “Needs to be paid as soon as possible!”. The email appears to be sent from one of your biggest clients. Since you are on vacation, your ordinary “fraud-alert” is not active. The co-worker you forwarded it to assumes that when it is coming from you it must be legit, and therefore pays the invoice.

Does it sound familiar?

Cybersquatting can be done in different ways and above is just an example of a real case that took place in the recent past. Frauds causing damages worth millions of euros have been committed using falsified documents and electronic communication channels. You can’t anticipate everything, but there are some settings that make it possible to protect your company from fraudulent activities. By working proactively and having a cybersquatting strategy, you will become less vulnerable!

Have you been affected or suspect that you might have been, get in touch with Zacco’s cyber security and digital brand consultants immediately.