A major retail chain in New Zealand was targeted by cyber criminals operating overseas. NetSafe, the program from the Internet Safety Group of New Zealand that promotes safe use of the Internet communications, revealed the well-planned but unsuccessful phishing attack. NetSafe's Cybersecurity Program Manager Chris Hails would not name the company but said a caller convinced employees to download a rogue program designed to take over the store's computers. However, the attempt was foiled when the company's IT staff noticed the attempt and blocked the program. The retail chain did not lose any data because of the attempt.
Cyber attacks are costly for any company. Russia-based anti-virus software producer Kaspersky and research company B2B International revealed in June that large companies spend USD 649,000 in the event of a cyber attack. In 2011, the hack attack lodged against Citi Group stole an estimated USD 2.7 million from 3,400 accounts. However, the cyber criminals were able to access 360,083 accounts according to a CNNMoney report.
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