Harpooning Executives

How phishing evolved to the C-suite

In June 2014, Keith McMurtry, financial corporate controller for Scoular Co. lost $17 million of the company’s money. And it all started with an email.

McMurtry received a series seemingly innocent messages from Scoular’s CEO, Chuck Elsea, asking him to wire money to a bank account in China. This didn’t raise any concerns for McMurtry as he knew that Scoular was in the process of acquiring a company there.

Each of the three emails McMurtry received asked for a certain amount to be wired to China. Each time, McMurtry complied.

A few days later it was discovered this was all a complicated email phishing scam. In less than a week, Scoular Co had lost $17.2 million to a “whaling” attack – and all that money will never be recovered.

It’s the ultimate cautionary tale: whaling can cost companies millions. And sadly, the news is full of similar stories.

Could your company be next?  Read our eBook to find out how to:

  1. Educate your users and executives
  2. Deploy comprehensive protection and protect your “attack surface”
  3. Plan for the worst case scenario

Protecting your inbox: 9 easy ways to secure your email from the most common attacks

9 ways to protect your email from the most common attacks

Download our guide to learn more about protecting your company from phishing attacks.

Like this resource? See more like it in our Resource Center.

About Intermedia
Intermedia is a one-stop shop for cloud business applications and experts in the security space. Our Office in the Cloud™ suite integrates the essential IT services that companies need to do business, including email, voice, file syncing and sharing, conferencing, instant messaging, identity and access management, mobility, security and archiving. Office in the Cloud goes beyond unified communications to encompass a wider breadth of fundamental IT services, delivered by a single provider. Intermedia’s services are integrated into our HostPilot® Control Panel. This means you have just one login, one password, one bill and one source of support—which makes the cloud easier to use and more efficient to manage. Intermedia further streamlines the experience by offering enterprise-grade security, a 99.999% uptime guarantee and 24/7 phone support with typical hold times of less than 60 seconds.
Learn more about Intermedia >>