Nordex, one of the world's largest wind turbine makers, was defrauded by hackers, who sent some of their loot to a Nigerian official, according to a federal court document. In June last year, hackers took control of an email account belonging to an employee at heavy machinery manufacturer Mountain Crane. The hackers used their access to send an invoice totalling $1.75 million to one of the company’s customers, wind turbine giant Nordex, which then unwittingly paid the hackers over $800,000.
A month later, Nordex realized it had been defrauded and contacted the FBI. This incident was a classic case of what’s known as Business Email Compromise (BEC), one of the most common and financially devastating cyberattacks, costing the U.S. $2.7 billion in 2022 alone