NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A fake e-mail that appeared to be a legitimate message from the Miami Dade State Attorney’s Office fooled police officers in North Miami Beach, according to sources familiar with the scam.
A fraudster used the e-mail to pretend to be an SAO investigator who was looking into human trafficking, so several North Miami Beach Police Department employees fell for it earlier this week, according to sources.
City officials released a statement: “After learning that a few of our email accounts were compromised through a phishing scam, which impacted multiple government agencies, we have successfully re-secured the impacted accounts.”
The city reported the network and data were not impacted, and the breach was limited to the e-mail accounts. The security breach remained under investigation.
SAO also released a statement saying the “very sophisticated attempted phishing intrusion” targeted the computer information system, and it was “discovered and eliminated” on Feb. 13.
The hacker used “excellent electronic facsimiles of authentic SAO materials, the email sought to get the user to open what appeared to be a legitimate document from members of the SAO staff,” the SAO statement said.
But what has been stressed so often in cyber security is that looks can be very deceiving and before you click that link ask questions and make sure you know it’s legit