A scary horror story about a business email hijack incident

Although we're offering a disclaimer that this is a scary horror story, it is a dramatic reconstruction of a very real email hijacking and hacking incident that m3 Networks have assisted with the repair from.

Prefer to read a transcript of the episode? Click here.

Email hijacking is a scary thing. It can happen to anyone.

And it often goes unnoticed until it's too late.

In this episode of the Techcess technology podcast, host Mark Riddell will give you a sneak preview of a very scary story we're about to publish, about a small business that was hijacked out of thousands of pounds.

We hope that by sharing this story, we can help others avoid falling victim to email hijacking themselves!

What is email hijacking?

Email hijack is a type of cybercrime where an email account is taken over by a hacker, often without the owner's knowledge. The hacker will then use the email account to send fraudulent emails to the victim's contacts, in order to try and scam them out of money or personal information.

Email hijack can have a devastating impact on small businesses, as it can result in the theft of thousands of pounds. In some cases, email hijack can also lead to the loss of important business contacts and damage to the company's reputation.

The best way to avoid becoming a victim of email hijack is to be vigilant about checking your email account for any suspicious activity, and to make sure that you have strong passwords that cannot be easily guessed by a clever hacker.

What can happen when your email gets hijacked?

The act of email hijacking is when someone then takes over control of an email account with the use of phishing links or attachments.

The email hijacker can then get unwelcome access with malicious intent, gain access to all the victim's personal information, including passwords, bank details etc.

They can take over an account without the owner knowing it and send out spam emails which are very damaging to a business' reputation.

It happens more often than people realise because hackers use social engineering techniques like phishing (sending an email that looks like it's from a trustworthy source) to obtain the credentials.

What Techcess is doing about the problem with this episode

This episode of Techcess begins a bigger conversation around the perils of being email hijacked, using a story to bring home the very real threat.

Our character David may be a fabrication to protect the business owner's identity, but the situation at the centre of the plot is very real!

What episodes of Techcess can you listen to that offer more insight into email phishing? Glad you asked! 

On the Techcess techology podcast, we've already covered the subject of email hijacking and phishing on a few episodes.

Here they are linked for you to easily find them and listen.

Episode 3

Episode 7

Episode 8

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Mark Riddell's technology podcast "Techcess" is an m3 Networks production. Mark and the team have created this podcast to help you and their clients understand how technology can help them in their industry and business, including helping them with cyber security solutions. To find out more about Mark Riddell and the rest of the m3 team, visit them here and follow them on Linkedin.

If you want to get in touch about technology or cyber security, just address an email directly at Mark here. He'll be very happy to hear from you.

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