New Hampshire Retirement System, Concord, recently became the latest victim of hacking when an unknown party attempted to gain access to retirees' accounts, but it managed to thwart the attack before too much damage was done, according to a news release.
In early July, the hacker created 45 online accounts for retirees who had yet to create one and then attempted to divert the direct deposit of their pension payments to Green Dot Bank, the pension fund said in the news release.
Marty Karlon, a spokesman for the $8.1 billion pension fund, said in a telephone interview that the perpetrator had enough personal information about the 45 retirees to set up the accounts on NHRS' "My Account" website, but the fact that so many accounts were created at the same time, which tried to divert payments to the same bank, was quickly identified as suspicious. The size of the payments was not disclosed.
"The fact that it was happened was not good, but the fact we caught it was," Mr. Karlon said.
The "My Account" website was briefly taken down as a precaution and the pension fund said it has reported the incident to authorities. The page is back online, but the ability to create new accounts is still disabled as the fund investigates how the hacker gained access.
