[BreachExchange] MacEwan University defrauded of nearly $12M in phishing scam

[Inga Goddijn]

http://globalnews.ca/news/3710654/macewan-university-loses-nearly-12m-in-phishing-scam/

MacEwan University said its IT systems are secure after the institution was
defrauded of nearly $12 million in a phishing scam.

The university learned it was the victim of an attack last Wednesday, Aug.
23 after a series of fraudulent emails “convinced university staff to
change electronic banking information for one of the university’s major
vendors.”

The fraud led the university to transfer $11.8 million to a bank account
staff believed belonged to the vendor, the university said in a media
release Thursday afternoon.

“There is never a good time for something like this to happen,” university
spokesman David Beharry said. “As our students come back to start the new
academic year, we want to assure them and the community that our IT systems
were not compromised during this incident.

“Personal and financial information, and all transactions made with the
university are secure. We also want to emphasize that we are working to
ensure that this incident will not impact our academic or business
operations in any way.”

More than $11.4 million of the money has been traced to accounts in Canada
and Hong Kong. The university said the funds have been frozen while it
works with lawyers in an attempt to recover the money.

The whereabouts of the remaining money is unknown.

After the fraud was discovered, MacEwan conducted an audit of university
business processes. Officials said “controls were put in place” to prevent
similar incidents from happening.

External experts have been brought in to help the university in its
investigation. The university said preliminary investigations reveal that
controls in place around the process of changing vendor banking information
were inadequate, and that a number of opportunities to identify the fraud
were missed.

MacEwan University said final results of the review are expected within a
few weeks.

The minister of Advanced Education and the Officer of the Auditor General
have been made aware of the situation.
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