Cyber criminals 'posing as CEOs to con staff into transferring them money'

Cyber criminals are posing as CEOs of companies and conning lower-ranking staff into transferring large sums of money to them, Europol has warned in a major review of online threats.

The European Union’s law enforcement agency said fraudsters were emailing, or even phoning, employees with access to company funds and instructing them to carry out their urgent demands.

Subsidiaries of multinationals are being targeted in this new area of cyber crime, as staff in regional offices often do not know senior management in holding companies “and may be fearful of losing their job if they do not obey”, the report warns. 

The Internet Organised Crime Threat Crime Assessment 2015 (iOCTA), a wide-ranging review of developing online criminal threats on issues from child abuse to e‑fraud, also said the rise in non-card transactions had encouraged an “arms race” between cyber criminal entrepreneurs devising new attack methods, and the card industry as it develops counter-measures to protect customers and businesses.

The most recent figures available showed there were €1.44bn in fraudulent transactions in 2013 – a rise of 8 per cent on the previous year. The report also warned that cyber crime is becoming increasingly hostile and that cyber security is lagging behind. 

“Instead of subterfuge and covertness, there is a growing trend of aggression in many cyber attacks, and in particular the use of extortion, whether it is through sexual extortion, ransomware or Distributed Denial of Service  [DDoS] attacks,” it said.