Have you ever received a bill from your cell phone company and been shocked to see several hundred dollars in text messaging charges your teenager ran up when you weren’t looking? That’s nothing compared to the pain felt by an office furniture company in Nebraska last month. Sherrill Furniture’s phone account was hacked and used to make phone calls without their knowledge.
What’s the big deal? The calls originated in Somalia and were placed to locations such as Austria, France, and Korea. That’s some pretty serious long distance charges. Over a period of 12 hours, over 10,000 minutes were used (corporate accounts have multiple lines so many calls can be placed at once). The final cost of this caper was $45,582. You could outfit a business with a full suite of refurbished office furniture for less than that!
