NHBR - ‘A prime target’: NH’s cybersecurity problem

By AMANDA GOKEE/NEW HAMPSHIRE BULLETIN

To catch a glimpse of an impersonator is a strange experience — particularly if the person being impersonated is you.

When it happened to Ken Merrifield, who was serving as mayor of Franklin at the time, he said it was terrifying. The city’s finance director had called after receiving a strange email, which looked like it came from Merrifield, asking for banking information that he would never have requested.

“I was amazed looking at the email that for all intents and purposes looked like it came from my private email account,” he said.

But it was from cyber criminals using Merrifield as a disguise to try to get account information about the city’s finances.

Merrifield and the finance director identified the scam before any sensitive banking information fell into the wrong hands. But criminals have been honing their craft in the five or so years since that incident — and they’re getting really good at it.

Peterborough made national news this week when it was revealed that cyber criminals had struck twice, once in July and once in August, and made off with a total of $2.3 million in town funds.

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