I4C warns of ‘Boss Scam’ targeting corporate honchos

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has warned of a sophisticated fraud campaign, named the "Boss Scam", targeting corporate leaders by compromising the devices of senior executives and their messaging accounts before directing employees to make fraudulent financial transfers.

In a carefully calibrated deception, scammers contact CEOs or other high-ranking officials via email and WhatsApp, posing as regulators from the RBI. They threaten the victims with violations and urgent deficiencies to direct immediate action.

The hackers unload malware onto the devices used by the senior corporate leaders in the form of a ZIP archive containing an executable programme accompanied by a Dynamic Link Library file. "When the executive extracts and executes the file on a Windows desktop or laptop, a Trojan dropper is initiated. The malware establishes a persistent foothold, compromises the system, and hijacks the active Web WhatsApp session tokens," the I4C said in a statement on Monday.       

-PTI