Cybercriminals impersonated superannuation executives in a sophisticated mail scam that rocked the industry’s top organisations in the same week hackers compromised the largest retirement savings fund managers and siphoned money out of member accounts.

The Australian Financial Review revealed last week that the nation’s biggest funds – AustralianSuper and Australian Retirement Trust – were breached in a co-ordinated cyberattack that also hit other industry giants REST, Hostplus, as well as Insignia Financial’s retail MLC Expand platform.