[UK] £47 million stolen in HMRC phishing attack

In the UK, HMRC announced that scammers posing as taxpayers stole £47 million from the online accounts of 100,000 people, BBC News reports.

HMRC stated that it has written to those affected to confirm that their accounts are secure, no money has been taken from their accounts, and they need not take any action.

"These are attempts to claim money fraudulently from HMRC, not from customers," HMRC said.

The tax authority reportedly confirmed that a criminal investigation had already taken place and arrests were made last year.

According to HMRC, the scammers used phishing attacks to gain customer details and attempted to claim rebates. There was no cyber or hacking attack.

At a Treasury Select Committee on June 4, Angela MacDonald - HMRC's deputy chief executive - told MPs that a "lot of money" had been taken and "it's very unacceptable".

John-Paul Marks - HMRC's permanent secretary and chief executive  - reportedly told the committee, "a lot of work [was] then done to intercept this incident. We identified and locked down the compromised accounts."

HMRC's representatives received a reprimand for not writing to the committee about the fraud at the time.

Treasury Select Committee Chair Dame Meg Hillier said the committee had only learned of the scam when it was reported in the news.

"A word to the wise... let me use my position as chair just to remind you, gently - well perhaps not so gently - that it would be normal to advise parliament of things if you're appearing in front of a committee. Not to have it announced during the committee hearing," Dame Hillier said.

"Money was got. By criminals. By penetrating the digital system. A lot of people would consider that a cybercrime, however you define it."

Much of the scam centred on criminals setting up new accounts using phished information, Ms MacDonald said.

She added that many of those in whose name accounts had been set up didn't require an online tax account, and had never had one before, so would not have known they were part of the scam.

Ms MacDonald reportedly told the committee that "the nature of the attack altered through the year, as we were closing it down, and closing accounts down."

"They were moving their MO [method] over… We took a lot of action to actually tackle the perpetrators," she added.

"What has been a challenge in terms of... cleaning the accounts up is being clear that we were then talking to the genuine customer and not in fact talking to the criminal who was on the other end of the account."

Ms MacDonald said she was "clear with the information commissioner" and had been taking its advice on the handling of the incident.

"We are living in a environment where every single organisation was facing some kind of cyber threat," she said, and added, "it is a continuing piece of work for us to invest in our systems... to try to outpace the criminals".

According to the BBC, the government will make further investments in HMRC's IT systems at this week's spending review.

Source: BBC News

(Quotes via original reporting)

In the UK, HMRC announced that scammers posing as taxpayers stole £47 million from the online accounts of 100,000 people, BBC News reports.

HMRC stated that it has written to those affected to confirm that their accounts are secure, no money has been taken from their accounts, and they need not take any action.

"These are attempts to claim money fraudulently from HMRC, not from customers," HMRC said.

The tax authority reportedly confirmed that a criminal investigation had already taken place and arrests were made last year.

According to HMRC, the scammers used phishing attacks to gain customer details and attempted to claim rebates. There was no cyber or hacking attack.

At a Treasury Select Committee on June 4, Angela MacDonald - HMRC's deputy chief executive - told MPs that a "lot of money" had been taken and "it's very unacceptable".

John-Paul Marks - HMRC's permanent secretary and chief executive  - reportedly told the committee, "a lot of work [was] then done to intercept this incident. We identified and locked down the compromised accounts."

HMRC's representatives received a reprimand for not writing to the committee about the fraud at the time.

Treasury Select Committee Chair Dame Meg Hillier said the committee had only learned of the scam when it was reported in the news.

"A word to the wise... let me use my position as chair just to remind you, gently - well perhaps not so gently - that it would be normal to advise parliament of things if you're appearing in front of a committee. Not to have it announced during the committee hearing," Dame Hillier said.

"Money was got. By criminals. By penetrating the digital system. A lot of people would consider that a cybercrime, however you define it."

Much of the scam centred on criminals setting up new accounts using phished information, Ms MacDonald said.

She added that many of those in whose name accounts had been set up didn't require an online tax account, and had never had one before, so would not have known they were part of the scam.

Ms MacDonald reportedly told the committee that "the nature of the attack altered through the year, as we were closing it down, and closing accounts down."

"They were moving their MO [method] over… We took a lot of action to actually tackle the perpetrators," she added.

"What has been a challenge in terms of... cleaning the accounts up is being clear that we were then talking to the genuine customer and not in fact talking to the criminal who was on the other end of the account."

Ms MacDonald said she was "clear with the information commissioner" and had been taking its advice on the handling of the incident.

"We are living in a environment where every single organisation was facing some kind of cyber threat," she said, and added, "it is a continuing piece of work for us to invest in our systems... to try to outpace the criminals".

According to the BBC, the government will make further investments in HMRC's IT systems at this week's spending review.

Source: BBC News

(Quotes via original reporting)