Zedra, a trust corporate and fund services provider, has been the victim of a cyber-breach, eprivateclient has learnt.

Around 2,700 contacts of the firm’s group executive chairman, Bart Deconinck, were sent an email entitled ‘Zedra Management Proposal’ with an attachment that directed recipients to a URL, which then redirected to another URL The firm said this was a targeted spear phishing attack and the URL, along with the associated IP addresses were blocked and reported to the authorities.

In an email sent to recipients of the original phishing message, Mr Deconinck said that receiving the suspicious email and clicking on the link would not cause any harm to their systems or personal data, but advised anyone who followed the login procedure after clicking on the link to change their password.

Mr Deconinck added that “the situation is now solved and you can safely use my email address again. We do apologise for the inconvenience caused….”

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) issued advice earlier this year, warning the public to be vigilant as criminals adapt their tactics in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Recent research has shown that during lockdowns across the world, more people claim they have seen an increase in the level of online scams and phishing attacks they face since they started working from home.