BDO warns against Xmas ‘phishing attacks’
According to BDO, there are new risks that the average user in the BVI is exposed to daily and needs to be vigilant of, especially during the Christmas season when phishing attacks are increased to try to catch unaware persons.
Phishing is termed as the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
According to research, phishing is typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter personal information at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Communications purporting to be from social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators are often used to lure victims. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware.
“In this day and age of cyber hacks and data leaks, we feel that this information is important to protect everyone from nefarious attacks and theft of personal data. It is our goal and hope that in the future, the BVI will be regarded as a place of business where persons’ data will be safe and residents will be safety conscious with their personal data,” said Ryan Geluk, Director of Technology Risk at BDO.
BDO warning earlier this year
In was in August of this year that BDO warned against persons updating applications such as WhatsApp without reviewing the terms and conditions of those applications since a very large percentage of the public’s private information, such as phone numbers, would have been shared with Facebook by the end of September 2016.
“When we did the research and the rationale for the sharing we quickly realise that personal information such as phone numbers that are being shared over WhatsApp is all of sudden going to be shared with Facebook. BDO does not condone nor do they condemn users to agree to sharing their information. However, they simply wish to remind everyone to be aware of agreeing to updated terms without reviewing them first,” Mr Geluk had stated.
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9 Responses to “BDO warns against Xmas ‘phishing attacks’”
I am personally tired of people forwarding me WhatsApp chain mail about WhatsApp charging money unless I update, or getting the latest version by clicking on this link, or an email from one of my contacts saying that they travelled to another country but lost their passports and need me to lend them some money (of course its not them, but their email has been hijacked by a virus after they clicked on one of those links)
I may be reasonably sceptical of such posts, and aware enough not to fall for those common scams, but plenty of people are not. So I am thankful that at least they have taken it upon themselves to warn their clients and the general public about such stuff. That is called "being your brother's keeper".
it is nice to see a company looking out for those that are not "internet savy"
Thanks BDO