The recent phishing scam in New Delhi, where close to 1.66 Crore were siphoned off, has once again exposed the poor web security awareness standards in India.
As much as Rs 1.66 crore was, over five days of online transaction, transferred from a Punjab National Bank account to accounts in outstation bank, and withdrawn from there.
Phishing scams are nothing new. They have been on the scene for quite a while now. What really surprises me then, is that web users have time and again, fallen prey to such attacks.
Lack of initiatives by leading Banks to educate users about the Internet threats,is largely to blame for this. Owing to poor awareness levels, Customers are often ill-equipped to mitigate such risks.Further, Cyber Crime trail often spans to several countries, making it difficult to nab the perpetrators.
Banking in the online environment is vastly different from traditional banking. Internet has certainly made banking convenient, but has also brought a whole lot of security risks, which are unique to the Web Ecosystem.
Mitigating risks posed by phishing attacks isn’t difficult, provided users keep the following in mind:
# Banks will never send e-mails that ask for confidential information. If you receive an e-mail requesting your Internet Banking security details like PIN, password or account number, you should not respond.
# Whenever you use a link to access a website, be sure to check for the URL of the website and compare it with the original. We recommend that you type in the URL yourself whenever you access http://www.icicibank.com or bookmark/store the URL in your list of ‘Favorites’.
# Delete suspicious e-mails without opening them. If you happen to open them, do not click any link or attachment they may contain.
# If you receive a job offer via e-mail, ensure that it’s from a genuine and reputed company.
The tips are by no means exhaustive, but certainly they would go a long way in helping you protect your Identity Online.
Scribbles of a Chaotic Mind 