It is with this in mind that the South African Banking Risk Information Centre has issued a warning to banking customers about email hacking and other related cybercrimes. This took place at the centre’s Midrand offices on 7 April.
The centre’s CEO Kalyani Pillay defined email hacking as ‘a criminal act where criminals illegally access an email account and communicate as if they are the user’.
They do this by stealing account holders’ usernames and passwords through phishing or other means, to trick users into disclosing their details. They then utilise the compromised information to access and use the hacked email account.
From reports to the centre, it is clear that the most targeted email services are those that are free as they do not require any special configuration or usage consent.
Bank customers are encouraged to tighten their online security and to scrutinise all emails, especially the following:
Your email is full and you must use the link provided to delete messages or increase your mailbox size
- Important and for immediate attention:
- Please log on using the link provided n We are experiencing congestion due to anonymous registration of accounts and are closing some email accounts.
- Please verify that you would like to retain the email account by logging on through the link provided. Other tactics that criminals use include posing as an organisation such as SARS and requesting you to log on to your email account through the provided links to access your online tax information.
Once you have clicked on the hyperlink, you will be requested to provide your username and password which will then be routed to the criminals and used by them to sign into your account as if it’s you.
The centre would like the public to guard their online identity carefully by constantly changing and devising complex passwords that cannot easily be guessed and offered these tips:
- Never list your main email addresses publicly anywhere. This includes online advertisements; blogs or any place where it can be harvested by spammers
- Use a separate email address for the internet which is not linked to your personal or business email account.
- Make sure that your PC or mobile is updated with the latest OS updates and anti-virus/malware software
- On a secure PC, log on to your email and then check whether or not any of the settings have been changed by a hacker. If any of the settings have been altered, delete the new settings.
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