One of a company’s worst nightmares goes a little something like this.

An employee boots up their computer at the beginning of the work day. A couple of minutes into work they get an email from someone who seems to be a coworker. They click the link without thinking, and a message flashes onto their screen:

“Your files have been encrypted. You have 24 hours to pay a fine of $500. If you do not pay the fine, your files will be permanently encrypted.”

Yesterday, for several companies across Europe and Asia and even in the United States, that nightmare became a reality.

Disguised payment requests are the result of financial losses for companies whose employees have been targeted and spammed with fraudulent emails. These Company exec posers, got their recipients to process payments for non-existent goods or services. They did it with a fake wire and/or card transfers.

This is a great example of social engineering and the W-2 phishing scam that had happened earlier this year.

There is another cyber attack out there and it is toward airline clients and their employees. This new cyber campaign is attacking companies involved with shipping goods and employee traveling.

A department from SecureWorks; a protective service unit that protects individual's or businesses digital information, has been closely watching a well known group of Russian hackers.