City of Naples loses $700,000 due to spear-phishing attack

• Threat actors disguised as a representative from the Wright Construction Group and targeted a specific department through a phishing email.
• A criminal investigation has been launched to understand the extent of the attack.

The city of Naples in Florida has been targeted in a spear-phishing attack, resulting in a loss of $700,000.

What happened?

According to officials, threat actors disguised as a representative from the Wright Construction Group and targeted a specific department through a phishing email. The Wright Construction Group did infrastructure-related work in downtown Naples.

This caused the department or the person to transfer the amount to a fake bank account provided by the hackers.

How bad is the attack?

City Manager Charles Chapman has confirmed that the hackers have stolen a sum of $700K by leveraging the phishing email. He also informed that the attack was an isolated incident and has not affected the city’s data systems. A criminal investigation has been launched to understand the extent of the attack.

“The City’s data systems are safe and secure. This attack was not malware or ransomware, no data breach occurred. The City has and will continue to make improvements to our information technology systems,” Chapman added, Miami Herald reported.

Worth noting

The city of Naples is the fourth city in Florida to be attacked by hackers in less than two months. Key Biscayne, Riveria Beach, and Lake City are the other Florida cities to have been targeted in cyberattacks.