FBI issues warning of cyber criminals targeting payroll accounts through phishing schemes. What individuals should due to protect their banking account information.

https://www.securityweek.com/fbi-alerts-warns-cyber-thieves-targeting-payroll-accounts

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[maglasdParticipant]

This type of data is basically used across all industries so al lare targets. Especially since many organizations have outsourced payroll to 3rd parties that may not are too much security oriented. Email Advance Threat monitoring solutions and of course extensive user cyber security awareness may help.

[b490177Participant]

Very interesting article. In particular, I was interested in, this quote from the article, “The cyber-thieves also add rules to the employees’ payroll accounts to ensure that they do not receive alerts regarding direct deposit changes. Next, the attackers change direct deposits and redirect them to accounts they control.” Disabling the alerts when their direct deposit information may be the key to the success of this attack. The banks should not allow those alerts to be disabled (unless they already don’t and this is part of the sophistication of the attack.)

[fsilgadoParticipant]

Interesting new type of attack, I never read about it before, but it makes sense for an attacker to do it, specially when you can payroll systems in the cloud, which makes the attack easier for the hacker as he/she doesn’t have to have access to internal company systems; if an attacker compromises a whole company it could be profitable for the attacker, so this type of attack will possible raise by cybercriminals that will like to have financial gain. I guess the best security measure for this type of attack is information security awareness for all employees and also a two factor authentication mechanism for payroll system when the user is changing this type of critical information.
thanks.

[ClassmateHUParticipant]

Organizations should also ensure that the credentials used for payroll purposes are different from those used for other purposes. Heightened scrutiny to bank information initiated by employees when looking to update or change direct deposit credentials and monitoring employee logins that occur outside normal business hours should also mitigate the risks associated with payroll diversion.
Furthermore, organizations are advised to restrict access to the Internet on systems handling sensitive information and to consider adopting two-factor authentication for access to sensitive systems and information. Allowing only required processes to run on systems handling sensitive information is yet another mitigating factor.

[jeffery.olson@genmills.comParticipant]

I wonder what the regulatory implications would be for a US company if their payroll systems were compromised and employee PII was accessed. Or if banking account information was accessed and modified by the hackers……. allowed payroll funds to be deposited into the incorrect account?

[Author]

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