Main U.S. mining company suffers cyberattack with a $500,000 theft.
NioCorp appears to have fallen victim to a BEC (Business Email Compromise) attack.
NioCorp Developments, a Canadian mineral exploration company operating in Nebraska, has reported a cyberattack that resulted in a loss of approximately $500,000. The company disclosed this incident through an 8-K report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 14.
In the document, NioCorp detailed that it detected "unauthorized third-party access" to its information systems, which included parts of its email systems. This access resulted in a "diverted payment to a vendor" amounting to nearly half a million dollars.
The attack involved tricking NioCorp into making a payment to an incorrect bank account, a common method in Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, where cybercriminals gain access to the email accounts of high-level executives and use that information to deceive the finance department.
NioCorp acted quickly upon realizing what had occurred, notifying federal law enforcement and certain financial institutions in the hope of recovering the funds. It is still unknown whether they have been successful in this aspect. Additionally, the company has begun taking steps to investigate, contain, assess, and remediate the attack.
Although the company believes that, aside from the BEC incident, no other attacks or attempts have been carried out, it continues to analyze the nature and overall impact of the incident. The filing concluded that, to date, it has not been determined whether the cybersecurity incident will have a material impact on the company's overall financial condition or its operating results.
NioCorp is engaged in the production of niobium, scandium, and titanium, materials that are crucial for both industrial applications and sustainable technologies.