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Quincy Quarry identifies two Nigerian likely suspects in $3.5 million cyberheist of City of Quincy funds
– News about Quincy Massachusetts from Quincy Quarry News
A plucky cyber thief plucking an easy mark
Image via Vangard News
While neither the local tabloid nor the South Shore broadsheet have yet to report on the Massachusetts Public Employees Retirement Administration Commission’s review of just how badly things played out as regards the February 2021 $3.5 million Business Email Compromise (BEC) cyber scam, Quincy Quarry News is herein rolling out its second exposé of this financial Charlie Foxtrot.
As the Quarry’s ever-growing legions of loyal readers already know, Quincy officials did not even know that the cyberheist went down until roughly eight months afterwards.
Looking for the missing millions, low-hanging fruit – whatever …
A 2000 election Free Republic image
In fact, that the Koch Machine did not know that millions were missing until eight months after the heist as the Quincy Retirement Board’s record keeping was worse than woeful.
How bad was the record keeping?
So bad that Quincy Retirement Board’s authority to run the city employee retirement fund portfolio was suspended by the state retirement commission after the cybeheist but before it was discovered as the board’s record keeping was, well, a “joch.”
And now within but a few hours of the release of the State of Massachusetts’ Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (“PERAC”) review of this multi-million dollar Business Email Compromise (“BEC”) cyber heist was released, Quincy Quarry News’ cyber crime desk was able to identify two likely Nigerian suspects.
Additionally, the Quarry’s cyber crime desk has determined that the Hong Kong bank account used to receive the $3.5 million scammed was opened roughly a month before the cyberheist.
Conversely, the Quincy Police Department, which is said in the PERAC report to be the designated lead criminal investigator in this case, has yet to provide any such information.
Clueless in Quincy?
A City of Quincy head short of “The Beav”
In fact, the Quincy Police Department has yet to say much of anything about the case.
Then again, given the gobsmackiingly shoddy practices of the City of Quincy when it comes to cyber security along with many other shortcomings, one can readily fathom how Quincy Police Chief Paul “The Beav” Keenan might be loathe to embarrass his brother-in-law, Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch, even though responsibility for the millions in stolen bucks should at least significantly fall on the mayor for running such a sloppy shop.
In any event, Quincy Quarry News’ ever-growing legions of loyal readers know that the Quarry will continue to exposé the Koch Machine’s tukas as regards this mess as well as the myriad of other related shortcomings.
Piling it higher and deeper
Image via San Jose Mercury News
For example, expect the Quarry to soon skewer such things as Quincy Mayor Koch’s mouthpiece Pinocchio Walker’s high dungeon shoveled and so reported by WCVB/Channel 5 that the heist was others’ fault even though Quincy’s cybersecurity was a porous as a colander, if not as explosively ventilated as a Russian tank taken out by plucky Ukrainian solders defending their homeland.
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Apparently, employee online fraud awareness training does not apply to the mayor’s family and friends who work for the city nor to the two hampsters and a gerbil that run the city’s IT systems. If this happened in the private sector, everyone involved, including the vendor, would be fired!
Are there other reasons why Quincy police may not have responded to the $3.5 million dollars claim? Maybe the money does not belong to Quincy at all and maybe mixed up in reporting with other similar heists of the same nature and time frame from 2021 also in and around Quincy. As far as my knowledge can carry me back the Quincy retirement heist has since been resolved and the culprits tried and sentenced and fined, if that were the case then this should be seriously looked upon as my missing heist money that has not been accounted for and investigation still on going.
Charles,
No offense, but please note the following.
The $3.5 million cyberheist from the Quincy Retirement Board has NOT been resolved. The scammers who pulled it off have NOT captured, much less convicted and then sentenced.
Next, there appear to be serious problems with the Quincy Police Department’s handling of the instigation as well as various legitimate concerns about it taking on the infestation in the first place.
Quincy Quarry will thus be following up on same shortly so stay tuned!!!
Finally, Quincy Quarry News is not aware of any other similarly sizeable local cyberheists.
Then again, who knows for certain as it has been reported that it took EIGHT MONTHS for the Quincy Retirement Board to discover it as well as was only uncovered as the Massachusetts Public Employees Retirement Administration Commission had formally spanked the Quincy Retirement Board over the woeful state of its records and another several months or thereabouts longer yet before the heist became known to the public care of a dime dripped to WCVB Channel 5.
Bottom line, there is no excuse whatsoever for it taking a year for city retirees, current city employees AND the general public to know about a $3.5 million cyberheist that would have NEVER happened in the first place had the retirement board and the City of Quincy been engaging in the most basic of also simple cyber security practices that for the most part have been practiced by all manner of other organizations for many years if not also upwards of a couple of decades if not even longer.
Even so, so far it clearly appears that no heads have rolled at the retirement board nor of anyone involved who work directly for the City of Quincy.