Most humans have a soft spot for animals. Cybercriminals are another breed obviously, as evidenced by the Dublin Zoo's computer system getting breached so that payments due it were electronically redirected to a criminal's account.
Ireland's Economic Crime Bureau of its national police force, known as Gardaí, is investigating who intercepted various invoices totaling the Euro equivalent of approximately $600,000 due to the zoo, which told the Irish Examiner last week none of its consumer records were compromised in the breach.
The zoo alerted the authorities as soon as the discrepancies were discovered, and financial institutions helped recover a portion of the funds.
The national police used the unfortunate incident as a wakeup call for all businesses.
“Gardaí would like to advise all businesses, both large and small, that under no circumstance should you agree to change a bank account number for a supplier based on a phone call, email or other means without verifying such change with someone that is known to you in the supplier's company,” the Gardaí added.
The Dublin Zoo was founded in 1831 and today its 400-plus animals, many endangered species from all over the world, attracts more than 1 million visitors a year.
