The suspect of the scam to the Congress Palace flees after being summoned to declare

VALENCIA.The Congresses Palace begins to accept that it will not recover the 21.000 euros that were stolen a little over a year through a cybethafa.And, as it has been known, the main suspect was cited to testify on December 9, but did not appear before justice because he was a citizen of foreign origin who, according to the data that is handled so far, would have fledof your home."There is a person identified as the main suspect, but he did not appear to testify at the time he was summoned and for what we know is fled from his home," said the agency's manager, Sylvia Andrés.

In this regard, the investigations carried out yes managed to follow the track and even identified as the possible culprit of theft.However, there were no precautionary measures on his person from the moment he was identified until he was subsequently cited to declare."In fact, we know that the citation was sent in October when the date was not set until December 9," says Andrés.Enough time for the person to be aware of his situation, leave his home and the track was definitely lost."It was not called from one day to another.We already know that justice has very long processes, "he alluded to.

"He is identified as the main suspect but it is not called to declare up to a month and a half later," he lamented about it."And do we trust it?".Even so, in this sense, the manager of the Palacio de Congresos expresses that the alleged scammer did not have its habitual residence in the Valencian Community, but that it was really found in another autonomous community.

But, as it is, the body has less and less hope to recover the money, especially because it is a "small" amount within its context, which also now joins the new difficulties arising from the research process, withThe alleged guilty escaped and in an unknown whereabouts.Even so, and as the Congress Palace has learned, the investigation still moves forward.If it is not to recover the money, at least, to stop the culprit in case it finally demonstrates their responsibility for the facts.

A line of thought to which the president of the autonomous agency dependent on the City of Valencia, Councilman Emiliano García: "I have faith that although we do not manage to recover the money, at least stop the person," he detailed, "he detailed," he detailed.In this regard, it should be remembered that it is the consistory's lawyer who carries the defense of the Congresses Palace.Although, for the moment, there have been no more news regarding the progress of the procedure.

However, Sylvia Andrés explains that the agency himself cited a meeting to the suspect after knowing that he had found his identity but, as expected, this person did not appear at any time to give explanations or try to solve the problem."It has been bad luck," explained the manager."Attacks like these are frequent and happen everywhere.In fact, the palace itself constantly blocks them, "he concluded."Cyberataque is the new form of robbery and this time it has touched us, although throughout the last year we have made important efforts in security".

"Confirme la modificación de datos bancarios"

The Palacio de Congresos denounced the theft before the National Police last February, although the events really occurred in December 2020 and were uncovered in January.And, the alleged scammer sent an email to the administration of the agency posing as the security company that provides its services in the enclosure, Securitas.In the message, he assured that the account number had been changed through which the monthly payment is proceeded, and even attached a letter with the letterhead of the company itself, the CIF, the address of the headquarters and the data of this new Bank account.

All this through an email address very similar to that of the true firm, although with a different domain.He also attached even a certificate from the bank in question, Ing Direct, in which he assured that Securitas was the owner of the new account contributed and that everything was in order.Thus, the Administration put the new data on the payment platform, and on December 23 the transfer corresponding to the November services worth 21 was authorized.020 euros.

"Please confirm the reception of documents and the modification of bank data!" Literally prayed the message.However, it was not the security company who was doing the transfer: everything was a fraud.He also failed here, as the complaint plasma, the security protocol of the banking entity in charge of managing the payment, Caixa Popular.And, this offers an automated verification process through which it is verified that the account digits coincide, indeed, with its owner.And, if not, he launches some type of alarm to alert the danger.But it didn't happen.

The scam was known in January, when the Palacio de Congresos went to make the entrance of December and found that the fraudulent account was blocked.After consulting, Securitas reported that they had not received the money from either of the two payments and presented a new certificate of ownership, in this case the real.

Thus, from the Consistory they explained that the scam could have been avoided in the event that the Palacio de Congresos had had the security procedure that is applied to the payments of the Consistory.A dynamic that explicitly prohibits proceeding to account number changes if they are notified by mail, as happened in the theft of the autonomous body.Thus, these efforts are carried out through the electronic headquarters, and companies are obliged to demonstrate their ownership with a certificate or key.

Mejoras de seguridad en 2021

As Sylvia Andrés explained, the Congresses Palace reinforced its security mechanisms after having suffered the scam."We went around the security system and now we are giving more and more importance to this type of issues," he said.In this regard, he explained that earlier this year the Congress Palace will be included in the Integral Electronic Administration Platform (PIAE) of the City of Valencia, a tool that serves to safely manage payments, files and other.

Likewise, they also collaborated with the Technological Institute of Informatics (ITI) to detect their weak points and thus improve security procedures.In this sense, the Technology Center tried to hack the Palace of Congresses without their workers knowing when not how it was going to happen, launching different attacks that even perpetrated inside the building through the Wifi Network."We left all the tests, they couldn't do anything," says Andrés.

Likewise, he also adds that the 2021 security audit was satisfactorily resolved all the deficiencies that had been detected in the 2020: "This does not mean that we are completely insurance because today new attack systems are inventedWe do not even know, but it is true that we have improved much and even the workers have received training courses to be as prepared as possible, "he concluded.