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March 28, 2024

Furniture company hit with email attack

Furniture company co-founders Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams.

Furniture company co-founders Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, one of Alexander County’s largest furniture employers, notified its employees and the public in the past week that the company was the victim of a cyber attack.

Mitchell Gold, co-founder and Chairman of the manufacturing company, confirmed to The Times that the company released the following statement on Jan. 30:

What Happened? On January 23, 2017, we discovered our company was the targeted victim of an email spoofing attack whereby an unauthorized person obtained certain employee information. As soon as the company discovered the fraudulent nature of the spoofing attack we began working tirelessly to investigate and to mitigate the impact of the attack. The day we discovered the fraudulent spoofing attack we notified the Internal Revenue Service, and the following morning we met with the Alexander County Sheriff and Sheriff’s Office detectives to commence an investigation.

What We Are Doing. The confidentiality, privacy, and security of our employee information is one of our highest priorities. MGBW has stringent security measures in place to protect the security of information in our possession. We do not believe that the individual who obtained the employee information accessed our computer network or that our IT systems were otherwise compromised by this attack. In addition, as part of our ongoing commitment to the security of personal information in our care, we are working to implement additional safeguards and provide additional mandatory training to our employees on safeguarding the privacy and security of information on our systems. As noted above, we have contacted the IRS and the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office, the latter of which is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and we have contacted the relevant state Attorneys General.

“In addition, we are taking other measures to assist our employees with this matter; one such measure is our immediate arrangement with Equifax, one of the leading U.S. credit reporting agencies, to provide identity theft protection services at no charge to our employees.

“Anyone having information that leads to an arrest in this matter, should contact the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office at (828) 632-2911. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams is also offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in this matter,” the statement read.

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