Officials at Arlington, Massachusetts, confirmed the loss of more than $445,000 following a business email compromise attack against the town last year, reports StateScoop.
Attackers impersonating a vendor contracted by the town to work on a $240 million project meant to rebuild a local secondary school were able to lure town employees to provide four monthly payments to their account between October and January, according to Arlington Town Manager Jim Feeney, who noted that nearly 6% of the exfiltrated funds were already recovered by the town's banking agency.
Further investigation into the incident following the vendor's disclosure of not receiving the town's payments revealed that threat actors also unsuccessfully attempted to intercept $5 million of payments during the operation.
"We are making every effort to improve our cybersecurity posture. Cybersecurity is an ever-changing and evolving threat. As an organization, we will continue to adapt our defenses to emerging threats," said Feeney.
