South Africans are increasingly falling victim to ransomware, malware which takes control of your data until a ransom is paid. Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said parastatals, government, big business and wealthy individuals were being targeted in both cases.
Computer forensic expert Danny Myburgh has received five new cases of e-mail hacks this month. "A lot of people use Gmail or online e-mail accounts as the primary account for their personal affairs. The perpetrators watch what you are doing without you knowing. They take note of the terminology you use and the way you speak to your mother, sister and banker," he said.
In several cases, hackers sent e-mails requesting money to be transferred into new accounts to unsuspecting bankers, who were used to receiving financial instructions via Gmail from their clients.
"In one case a person was using his Gmail account to give financial instructions to his banker. The perpetrators then sent the banker an e-mail, referring to previous conversations to make the banker believe it was the real user. They then asked for a transfer of a certain amount of money to a newly created account. The banker who had been working with this person for years and was used to getting instructions via e-mail, did it, and R2.2-million was gone."
Mulaudzi said syndicates behind ransomware targeted South Africans daily. The hackers install malware which prevents a user accessing encrypted data without a decryption code. The hacker then demands payment in Bitcoins, a digital currency with no money trail, in exchange for the code.
Source: The Times
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