Japanese media giant Nikkei says $29 million lost in BEC scam - CyberScoop

Japanese media giant Nikkei says $29 million lost in BEC scam - CyberScoop: Scammers fleeced the publishing conglomerate Nikkei out of $29 million by impersonating an executive at the international firm. Nikkei America, the U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese company, said on Oct. 30 that one of its employees transferred the funds, equivalent to roughly 3.2 billion Japanese yen, “based on fraudulent instructions by a malicious third party” posing as a corporate boss. It’s the latest high profile business email compromise attack carried out by fraudsters who exploit employees’ inherent trust in other people in their organization. The company didn’t provide any specific details, saying only that it quickly realized it had been defrauded, and that the firm had notified law enforcement in the U.S. and Hong Kong. (Hackers frequently divert stolen money to accounts based in Hong Kong.) “We are investigating and verifying the details of the facts and causes of this incident,” Nikkei said in a statement. The company publishes the Nikkei 225 stock …

explicita