The hedge fund lost $ 1.2 million because of a phone con artist

London hedge fund Fortelus Capital Management was the victim of a telephone scammer who was able to steal $ 1.2 million using social engineering, writes The Secret of the Firm. The way in which an attacker was able to steal money has long been known - here the “weak link” is not a computer system, program or hardware, but a person, in this case an employee of the foundation.

The attacker called the fund Fortelus Capital Management and introduced himself as an employee of a private bank Coutts. In this case, the fraudster said that he had identified some unauthorized actions with the bank accounts. The financial director of the fund, Thomas Meston, generated special codes for the subscriber, with which the “bank employee”, in his own words, canceled 15 suspicious payments. The next day, it turned out that the “bank employee” was able to steal $ 1.2 million using those codes.

After the fraud came to light, Fortelus Capital Management demanded compensation for losses from its financial director. Thomas Meston has already given more than $ 100 thousand, and for a long time will work both without wages and without bonuses.

According to information security experts, this case clearly shows that the weak link in the system may not be technology, but man. "Employees of companies believe that only the software package is responsible for security, but in reality this is not at all the case," said Jones Ferdinand, the developer of the MBA course on cybersecurity, director of Coventry University.