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Social Engineering Scams on the Rise
With cybersecurity attacks on the rise, and the sensitivity of the information that business managers work with, social engineering and phishing scams have become some of the most apparent and common threats for the entire business and wealth management industry.
David Lam, CISSP, CPP, a Partner and Chief Information Security Officer at public accounting firm Miller Kaplan says that business managers are generally top targets for social engineering scams.
“Business managers have the keys to the kingdom for multiple clients and many of them don’t have enough control of the security of the information, which makes them prime targets,” Lam says.
Earlier this year, the New York-based entertainment and media law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks confirmed its computer systems were hacked in an incident that led to the alleged stealing of 756 gigabytes of private documents and information. A few days later, the hackers stated they had private information on Lady Gaga, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Ella Mai, Christina Aguilera, and Mariah Carey and doubled their ask for payment to $42 million.
“There’s a whole list of threats that will get you hacked,” Lam says. “Things we are seeing most prevalent right now are ransomware and phishing attacks, and a lot are coming via social engineering avenues.”
Lam says that most victims get an email, phone call, a text message or some combination which asks them to put in their credentials. Then, the malicious actor is infecting that email with ransomware or with tools that can infect the entire system.