PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- One of the region's biggest charities fighting food insecurity says a cyber attack took a big bite out of their bottom line.
Philabundance announced Wednesday that the nonprofit was the victim of a phishing and spoofing scam, whereby hackers infiltrated the computer system with fraudulent email communications and then sent a fake invoice. The Inquirer reports the thieves took nearly $1 million.
The FBI and Philadelphia Police Department are working to figure out who did it.
Philabundance says it has increased security efforts, but it acknowledges how difficult it is to protect against cyber attacks. Leaders of the hunger-relief organization encourage all nonprofits and charities to look into their own potential vulnerabilities online.
Despite this setback, the charity insists that any future donations will be protected and that donors can feel confident their money is going toward the mission of feeding people during this ongoing public health crisis.
Philabundance says this was a one-time attack and it didn’t affect daily operations or compromise the personal information of employees.