Cyber Criminals Stole $94,000 from Red Wing Church

St. Joseph Church located in Red Wing (Minnesota, US) has lost nearly $94,000 following an incident of hack into its computers by cyber thieves. The church informed the Red Wing Police about the theft on March 20, 2009 and said it involved siphoning of money out of the institution's bank account.

To notify church members about the incident, Thomas Kommers, Church Priest, issued a letter on March 19, 2009 that said crooks were able to access confidential information of the church used for making electronic funds transfer by employing a highly advanced computer virus, as reported by Farmington Independent on March 30, 2009. The letter added that the funds were dispatched in small amounts to other US banks.

The letter also said that it was not clear how the worm made its way into the church computers. However, according to it, authorities of the church think that no personal information belonging to any church member contained in the computers has been abused. Despite that, the authorities are encouraging all members to closely monitor personal bank and credit card statements to ward off probable risks.

Kommers said that the more shocking part than the theft of the money is that the church had been attacked by a cyber crime. He also disclosed that the sum siphoned was approximately one-seventh of the annual budget of St. Joseph, but the church thinks it would be possible for it to regain the lost money.

Meanwhile, the infected PCs at the church have been substituted with fresh ones so that work at the institution runs as usual.

The security specialists said that the incident at St. Joseph is yet another instance of malware's disregard to social distinctions. Some burglars or thieves would likely re-think prior to attacking a church, but virus creators appear to have no troubles.

Therefore, the church's IT administrators are recommended that they deploy the right quality antiviruse as well as ensure they are always kept up-to-date. Another recommendation is that they use text e-mail, as they are free from viruses unlike the better-looking HTML e-mails.

Related article: Cyber Child abuser Sentenced To Imprisonment

» SPAMfighter News - 4/4/2009