Beware Of Phishing Website
22 Decemeber 2009 (Bernama) KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (Bernama) -- Members of the public are reminded to beware of phishing or fake websites used to conduct 'phishing attack' by masquerading as trustworthy entities such as familiar banking websites. The reminder came from CyberSecurity Malaysia which revealed that the number of phishing attempts is on the rise and accelerating. "The Cyber999 Help Centre has been receiving numerous reports from Malaysian Internet users regarding phishing websites hosted overseas, that look exactly like some of the well-known local banks' e-banking websites," CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive officer Lt Col Husin Jazri said in a statement here on Tuesday. He said the 'phishing attack' also utilised a kind of social engineering tactic such as sending spam e-mails that looked as through they were sent by well-known local banks. The fraudulent e-mail uses convincing words to trick people into clicking a link that would open up the phishing website or fake e-banking website, he said. "Because the fake website looks exacly like the original website, customers are tricked into entering their confidential information like their e-banking user-names and passwords into the fake e-banking website," he said. This way, the 'phishing attacker' could conveniently steal user-names and passwords of unsuspecting bank customers, he added. "Banks will never ask users to do account updates, password reset, account unlocking or anything in relation to banking via e-mails and URLs," he said. Thus the centre advised the public to completely ignore the e-mails should they receive such e-mails which look similar to those from the banks or any financial institutions. Those who receive such spam e-mails are advised to contact their banks for verification or contact Cyber999 Help Centre. CyberSecurity Malaysia is the national cyber security specialist centre under the purview of the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry. The service includes Digital Forensics/CyberCSI, Malaysia's Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT)/Cyber 999, Security Management and Best Practices, Security Assurance, Cyber Security Training and Professional Certification, Outreach, Awareness, and Social Responsibility Programmes and Cyber Security Policy and Legal Research. -- BERNAMA |
