GAMBICA | L@B Brief

L@B Brief - May 2024

Hello again,

A TRULY gob-smacking deep fake scam was confirmed this month after HK$200million (equivalent to US $25m) was stolen from international engineering firm ARUP.

An ARUP employee was invited to an online meeting, apparently by the company’s Chief Financial Officer, to discuss confidential transactions. The people on the video conference looked and sounded like fellow company staff but were in fact fake; created using material from previous video conferences. The employee, as instructed, sent money to five local bank accounts in 15 different transactions.

ARUP released a statement saying: ‘Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised’ but the company’s chief information officer, Rob Greig, acknowledged that the company had been subject to frequent attacks including deep fakes. “The number and sophistication of these attacks has been rising sharply in recent months” said Greig adding that he hoped ARUP’s experience would raise awareness of the risk.

Meanwhile, in less financially devastating but nonetheless commercially problematic news, members have been raising concerns about the quality of service received from UKAS accredited certification bodies. Particularly annoying is the frequency with which certification bodies cancel meetings, or fail to respond to communications in a timely manner.

Interestingly, one of the bigger bodies appears to be using sub-contractors based in Korea and China to carry out its paper-based audits. A GAMBICA meeting will be announced shortly at which we will discuss the issue, so if you are affected, do come along.

Finally, despite the recent announcement of the impending election, there are still quite a number of consultations outstanding from government departments. One, from the Export Control Joint Unit focuses on the sanctions lists, asking whether the way they are currently provided could be improved. There is no time limit on this consultation, (unlike their recent inquiry on OGELS which had to be completed within five working days) so if you would like to input, you can access it here.

Toodle pip

Jacqueline

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