The target: Virtu Financial, a high-speed trading firm.
The take: 6.9 million USD
The attack vector: Virtu was victim to a BEC, or Business Email Compromise, scam. The attack began when an executive’s email account was compromised and used to send fraudulent requests to the company’s accounting department leading to two outgoing wire transfers. The threat actors disguised their internal movements by creating email rules to prevent the legitimate owner from realizing the attack was happening. Believing the spoofed email requests were real, the accounting department made the transfers. The fraud was discovered two days later due to an internal auditing process.
The security of high profile accounts is paramount to robust cybersecurity, and this attack highlights why high level employees are often under the greatest focus from outside threats. Beyond maintaining security for employees with this level of access, the vetting of requests, especially where funds are concerned, is a top priority for vigilant cybersecurity.