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CEO Fraud Strikes Kansas County and Hospital

Posted: January 31, 2017 to Cybersecurity.

Tags: Data Breach, Compliance, Malware

Two instances of CEO fraud were announced yesterday.  One victim was a county in Kansas; the other a hospital. In the first instance, George S. James of Brookhaven, Georgia passed himself off as the CEO of a company requesting payments totaling $566,000 from Sedgwick County, Kansas.  The payment was made, but the county later found out that the real company, Cornejo & Sons, LLC, had not received a payment and had not sent the original email requesting the funds. James was arrested and faces a fine of $25,000 and up to 20 years in a federal prison. In the other instance, a fraudster posed at a Campbell County Health executive and requested W2 information from all of their 1,400 employees.  These employees can expect to be on the lookout for tax return fraud. Both of these cases could probably have been prevented had the employees handling the requests been trained to spot spoofed emails and if practices had been in place to verify the veracity of the requests.  If your employees have not undergone security awareness training, you should sign up now.

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About the Author

Craig Petronella, CEO and Founder of Petronella Technology Group
CEO, Founder & AI Architect, Petronella Technology Group

Craig Petronella founded Petronella Technology Group in 2002 and has spent more than 30 years working at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, compliance, and digital forensics. He holds the CMMC Registered Practitioner credential (RP-1372) issued by the Cyber AB, is an NC Licensed Digital Forensics Examiner (License #604180-DFE), and completed MIT Professional Education programs in AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity. Craig also holds CompTIA Security+, CCNA, and Hyperledger certifications.

He is an Amazon #1 Best-Selling Author of 15+ books on cybersecurity and compliance, host of the Encrypted Ambition podcast (95+ episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon), and a cybersecurity keynote speaker with 200+ engagements at conferences, law firms, and corporate boardrooms. Craig serves as Contributing Editor for Cybersecurity at NC Triangle Attorney at Law Magazine and is a guest lecturer at NCCU School of Law. He has served as a digital forensics expert witness in federal and state court cases involving cybercrime, cryptocurrency fraud, SIM-swap attacks, and data breaches.

Under his leadership, Petronella Technology Group has served 2,500+ clients, maintained a zero-breach record among compliant clients, earned a BBB A+ rating every year since 2003, and been featured as a cybersecurity authority on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and WRAL. The company leverages SOC 2 Type II certified platforms and specializes in AI implementation, managed cybersecurity, CMMC/HIPAA/SOC 2 compliance, and digital forensics for businesses across the United States.

CMMC-RP NC Licensed DFE MIT Certified CompTIA Security+ Expert Witness 15+ Books
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