Be Cyber Aware at Sea alerts seafarers that cyber criminals are targeting the ‘Big Phish’ in maritime companies. The attack is commonly known as ‘Whaling’. Today, even senior executives and officers are targets.
In many cases cyber attacks could be misleading and in their majority have the form of an email.
Internet users should be aware that it’s a common thing using emails these days, mostly in a professional environments.
Although the email is a secure means of communication, it is important for email users to keep an alert eye when emails are asking for more private information, such as downloading data or payment information.
When in doubt, one had better ask for a second opinion on the matter.
In addition, a striking example of cyber attack via email is scammers that pretend to be level executives. In order to do that, they first collect many publicly available information about the targets, such as data from social-media pages and personal facts.
After that, they send e-mails to the victims saying that the supplier’s bank details have changed. To make the e-mail more credible they use the correct logo and name so the victim would recognize it, saying that bank details are changed for the next payment run to the supplier. However, this is a scam and the money is gone.
