How cyber syndicates are cashing in – analyst

Legalbrief Today

Banking crimes increased by 64.3% last year, boosted by cyber crimes primarily committed by organised syndicates through online banking. Forensic analyst Jason Jordaan said the latest cyber crime cases involved business e-mail accounts that had been compromised. ‘I don’t have to hack a (bank) account because I can hack someone who is transacting with another person. It’s normally two parties who are communicating with each other through e-mail – crime syndicates will hack into one or both of the accounts and learn how the organisation operates’, he is quoted as saying in a Weekend Argus report. ‘If you’re a company that’s buying large quantities of a product then the hacker might replicate the e-mail and pose as the business to say "we’ve updated our banking details could you please deposit the money into this account".’ Jordaan added: ‘We’ve especially seen an increase in SA with these e-mail-related crimes but when we look at the statistics of a 64% increase it could actually be higher than that. These syndicates are making off with millions of rands.'

Full Weekend Argus report (subscription needed)