Hackers steal nearly $1M meant for low-income housing in Marin County
MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Hackers intercepted emails for months and stole close to $1 million from the Marin County Housing Authority in one of the county's largest theft of public funds ever.
"The money was gone immediately," said Kimberly Carroll, Executive Director of Marin Housing Authority.
By the time the Marin Housing Authority staff realized they had been hacked, it was too late.
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Their emails had been hacked in what experts have categorized as Phishing attacks where hackers send fake emails or text messages with links aiming to trick people into unknowingly sharing sensitive data and downloading malware.
"Six of our email accounts were hacked and they got in and were in our system since July. Found out in September," said Carroll. "They acted as if they were our vendor. So, they were talking to us as if they were our vendor. They were talking to our vendor as if they were us."
The Marin Housing Authority an independent district from the county had just received a $3 million loan from the county to begin the renovation process of 300 units of public housing.
After the Marin Housing Authority sent the funds their vendor later informed them, that they never got the money.
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"It was a real account, but it wasn't the account of our vendor, so the money was wired to those places thinking it was an email from our trusted vendor and then it went directly to a fake account," said Caroll.
The county's cybersecurity team is now helping the Housing Authority.
"They did file a report with the FBI to see if anything can be done there but chances are the money is already overseas and can't be retrieved," said Jason Balderama, Chief Information security officer for Marin County.
Balderama said these attacks can happen to anybody. He recommends calling if the link comes from a person, you know or a company to verify before clicking.
"One of the most common is that you get a shipping notification where they say click here to track your package," said Balderama. "Just don't click on the link if you don't have to."
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Luz Pena: "What happens if you do click those links?"
Jason Balderama: "So if you click on the link there is a potential that you could get malicious software installed on your device."
Despite all this, the Marin Housing Authority said they will continue their efforts to provide housing for low-income residents and fix the 300 units as planned.
As for the hackers, cybersecurity experts believe they could be anywhere from the U.S. to places in India, China, and Russia.
