Are you having problems with false emails in your organisation?

Today, I would like to talk to you about email frauds, and how to avoid being the victim of one.

I am sure many of you recognise the following scenario:

• You receive an email that appears to be from a co-worker.
• There is something odd about the email because it urges you to transfer a large sum of money to an offshore account.
• When you knock on the door of your co-worker’s office in order to ask a few questions about the request, it becomes clear she does not have a clue what you are talking about.

You have been “spoofed”.

Spoofing is an identity theft and attempt to commit fraud where the sender of an email looks very legit and/or a part of the same company.

There is a misconception that spam filters or antivirus programs takes care of spoofing. However, spoofing is not a “receiving” problem, but a “sending” problem, and as such not affected by these traditional security measures.

40 million Euros stolen by spoofing

In August last year, German industrial company Leoni AG, world leading manufacturer of cables and wires, was the victim of an email fraud that resulted in the transfer out of 40 million Euros. If that was not enough, when this became public their stock also dropped by 7% (source).

In order to counteract this growing and business critical problem, we at Ports Group have developed the service Secure Email (ECP).