(File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Cyber Crime

City of P.A. reflects on fraud protection after Saskatoon incident

Aug 17, 2019 | 9:56 AM

The City of Prince Albert wants to assure residents they have protections in place to combat fraud.

This comes on the heels of the City of Saskatoon announcing they lost $1 million to a fraudster who impersonated a contractor hired by the city and asked for a change in banking information.

City of P.A. Manager Jim Toye said the city doesn’t have formal training for employees, but they make sure employees working in financial areas received guidance.

“We do have senior members of staff who have been in the field for a number of years, have great experience and so they would talk to anyone who can approve something like this to ensure they know what to look for,” he said.

Toye said in any case where banking information had to be changed, the staff would ensure it was a real request.

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“We would at least call one maybe a couple people at the company that we’ve been used to dealing with,” he said.

When it comes to large sums of money as was the case in Saskatoon, Toye said his office along with the director of finance would have to sign off before such a payment could be made.

Brian Jack, chief information security officer with KnowBe4 a company based in the United States which offers anti-fraud training to organizations all over the world including in Canada, said one of the best steps companies can take is educating employees.

“People just need to be aware that, people are doing this, that this is a type of fraud that is happening,” he said.

One step Jack recommends organizations take is to make sure they have two step verification policies in place to make sure any changes to banking information are legitimate. He said staff from the City of Naples in Florida fell for a similar scam. He added many smaller municipal governments in the U.S. have also been targeted.

“The bad guys are turning to low tech fraud,” he said.

According to Toye, the City of P.A. will be taking the opportunity to look at their policies surrounding financial transactions. He added they will also be looking at the insurance the city carries to protect against such incidents.

“We will be looking at increasing that coverage to a higher number,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn