The fraudsters had access to the money even after new accounts were opened

Nov 21, 2012 10:11 GMT  ·  By

Over the past year, cybercriminals have managed to steal $450,000 (350,000 EUR) from the bank accounts of Gold Bar, a city in Snohomish County, Washington.

According to HeraldNet, the city has recovered more than half of the amount and they’re currently working with the financial institution to recover the rest of it.

Authorities, including the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, the FBI and the IRS, are investigating the incident.

The data breach came to light in November 2011, when someone tried to pass fake checks. At the time, the city opened other accounts, but it was clear that their security systems were inefficient because the hackers quickly managed to gain access to the new accounts as well.

A suspect of the criminal organization has been arrested on unrelated charges.

This incident once again highlights the fact that many organizations still lack not only the proper security measures, but their also fail to properly train their staffers to ensure that they can identify malicious operations.