Wealth Management Security Breach

Background

Cumulo9’s C9 Transact, a digital communications solution, is an essential email service provider for a major player in Wealth Management. This client relies heavily on email communications for their customer interactions.

The Challenges

In a recent incident, an essential email sent via C9 Transact to a new customer of a Wealth Management Fund triggered an unexpected security breach. Armed with altered information from the onboarding letter, a fraudster attempted to extract banking details from the recipient.

This alarming situation raised concerns at the highest levels of both the Fund Manager and the service provider. Fortunately, the customer saw through the scam; however, questions remained about how the fraudster accessed the email and altered the details.

The Solution

With the gravity of the situation, the issue was escalated to the Senior Management Team at the service provider and, ultimately, to Cumulo9. The stakes were high, considering the strong brands of both businesses operating in the critical Wealth Management industry. Cumulo9 was called upon to provide answers swiftly and decisively. The initial concern was that the delivery of the emails was compromised.

Fortunately, thanks to the robust nature of Cumulo9’s solution, comprehensive logs and audit reports were swiftly accessed. The evidence demonstrated that the email had reached the recipient’s inbox unaltered. Crucially, it revealed the exact date and time of the recipient opening the email. A “blind” cc copy for the archive also arrived intact and remained unopened during transit.

The Results

Cumulo9’s ability to promptly surface factual evidence allowed for a deeper investigation. Subsequent inquiries unveiled that the recipient’s desktop had been compromised, and a hacker had gained access to the inbox where the email was opened and altered. This revelation was crucial, as it redirected the focus away from a potential transit interception, saving valuable time and resources. Cumulo9’s emphasis on secure email delivery effectively addressed the issue.

Cumulo9’s commitment to secure email delivery was evident in its rapid response to the customer’s request for data, enabling a comprehensive inquiry. Whether dealing with a single email or an entire batch run, Cumulo9 stands ready to assist C9 Transact users in navigating challenges within the email delivery ecosystem.

Key Benefits

We are local and thus contactable. When there are issues you can simply pick up the phone. We are also operating in the same time zone as NZ senders
We are highly responsive. We have a service ethos that drives our business. When you compete with large international service providers you need a point of difference. Ours is that we care about every single email. It’s not a volume game for us.
C9 Transact has it’s own MTA (Mail Transfer Agent). This might sound like technical jargon, but it’s true. We have developed our own technology that manages the interface from send to secure receipt by the various Email Service Providers (ESP’s) that operate in our We think that this is important as we take full responsibility every step of the way.
We have years of We have dealt with issues of every kind over the fifteen years we have been providing the C9 Transact service. We understand the potential threats associated with sending “essential” emails. We have built a highly secure process to manage email sending.
Email sending is our business, we know how to optimise emails so they get Today Cumulo9 manage essential email sending for some of the largest enterprises in the New Zealand Market, from Government Agencies to banks, utilities, the Insurance industry and a wide range of financial organisations. We are highly trusted and our 99% delivery guarantee is close to 10% better than most of our competitors, none of whom offer a guarantee.