Cyber criminals are increasingly hacking into wealth managers systems to steal money from clearing banks, according investigation agency Kroll.
According to the agency, from the past four months at least six wealth managers have been the victims of multimillion-pound cyber thefts in the UK.
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The report revealed that criminals are accessing wealth managers’ systems by setting up bogus WiFi networks at airports and hotels, which are used abruptly by travelling staff.
As part of the hacking process, the criminals will send an email to a clearing bank asking for clients money held by the wealth manager to be transferred to a separate account.
Thereafter, the clearing bank will typically email the wealth manager asking for the suspicious transaction. Finally, staff at the latter will never see this email, as the fraudsters will have set up an email filter, and can confirm the transaction themselves.
However, the Metropolitan Police is to launch a 400-strong cyber unit early next year to tackle crime across London, after a 60% increase in offences in the past year. Previously, UK intelligence agency GCHQ has urged asset managers to push the issue higher up the corporate agenda.
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By GlobalDataEJ Hilbert, a former FBI counter-terrorist of Kroll’s cyber investigations reported the Financial Times: "It’s scary. Wealth managers are being used to get millions of dollars. I have seen six of these thefts in the four months I have been here. Europe and the Middle East are five years behind the US in cyber-crime awareness.
"The issue is lack of understanding of cyber security. I worked with a company that had 125 armed guards and four people dealing with cyber security. They had been hacked for four years. Their information is walking out of the door, but it is the cyber door, "he added.
