South Cyprus company hacked and €339,000 stolen

For the second day in a row, Greek Cypriot police urged businesses to pay extra attention to their online accounts and transactions after releasing a statement regarding a Limassol-based company finding out that unknown people hacked into its servers and stole around €130,000 and US $223,000 – a total of €339,000.

The incident dates back to December 13, 2022, when the financial department of the company instructed lawyers to report to the police the hacking of the servers and the consequent transfer of the money into foreign accounts.

Specifically, hackers transferred a total of $4,291 to a bank account in Belgium, before wiring $219,000 and €130,000 to another account based in the US.

A check carried out by the company on their own bank accounts revealed that they were unauthorised and that the recipients did not belong to any list of known partners or associates.

The case, which involves computer-related fraud, money laundering by false representation, forgery and offences under the Prevention and Combating Money Laundering Act, is being investigated by the financial crime investigation bureau of Limassol.

It follows another incident that emerged on Sunday involving a Limassol business that lost €48,000 during a bank transfer in late January.

According to the complaint filed by a company manager in Limassol, after an exchange of messages between his company and a cooperating company abroad, he transferred €48,000.

He was then informed by the company abroad that the invoice for his order had not been paid.

After investigating, it transpired that unknown persons hijacked the electronic communication that his company had with the collaborating company abroad, and sent him a different bank account number, diverting the money to them.

Cyprus Mail