Hong Kong Monetary Authority warns customers over banking phishing scams
Miami University warns students over SMS phishing campaign
CISO news
Hong Kong Monetary Authority warns customers over banking phishing scams
he Hong Kong Monetary Authority( HKMA) has warned consumers to remain vigilant following reports of phishing
T and online scams impersonating two banks operating in the territory.
The regulator issued the alert after receiving reports relating to fraudulent activity involving Bank of China( Hong Kong) Limited and OCBC Bank( Hong Kong) Limited.
Bank of China( Hong Kong) has reported phishing instant messages, while OCBC Bank( Hong Kong) has warned of a fraudulent website and Internet banking login screen.
The HKMA stressed that legitimate banks will not send SMS messages or emails containing embedded hyperlinks directing customers to their websites to carry out transactions.
Banks will also not ask customers to disclose sensitive information, including login passwords or one-time passwords, through telephone calls, emails or SMS messages, including through embedded links.
Phishing attacks frequently attempt to impersonate trusted organisations and direct victims towards fraudulent websites or login pages designed to capture account credentials and other sensitive information.
The HKMA advised anyone who believes they may have disclosed personal information or carried out a financial transaction in response to one of the reported scams to contact the relevant bank using the information contained in its official warning.
Potential victims have also been advised to report the incident to the Crime Wing Information Centre of the Hong Kong Police Force.
The warning follows continued efforts by financial institutions and regulators to raise awareness of impersonation and phishing attacks targeting banking customers.
Miami University warns students over SMS phishing campaign
Miami University has warned its community about an SMS phishing campaign impersonating its IT Help support desk and threatening recipients with the termination of their university email accounts.
M iami University has issued a cybersecurity warning after receiving several reports of fraudulent text messages impersonating its IT Help support desk.
The Ohio university said the SMS-based phishing campaign attempts to convince recipients that their university email account is facing termination.
One example highlighted by Miami University addresses the recipient by name and claims to come from a member of its Information Security and Operations team. The message asks the recipient to confirm whether they requested the termination of their school email account by replying“ YES” or“ NO”.
Miami University’ s IT Services has stressed that the message is fraudulent and warned recipients not to respond.
The university said its IT Help support desk will never contact users by text message or threaten to terminate an account in this way. It also highlighted grammatical and syntactical errors in the messages as potential indicators of fraud.
Students and staff who receive suspicious emails, text messages or telephone calls are being encouraged to forward them to the university’ s Information Security team so their legitimacy can be checked.
Miami University has also issued guidance around its Duo multi-factor authentication system. Users who receive a Duo push notification they did not initiate should deny the request. IT Services stressed that it will never ask users to provide their Duo authentication code.
The campaign demonstrates how attackers can use knowledge of an institution and its technology services to make phishing attempts appear more convincing.
By impersonating university IT personnel and creating urgency around the possible loss of an email account, the messages are designed to encourage recipients to respond before questioning whether the communication is genuine.
Miami University’ s warning forms part of its wider security awareness efforts, which include its Phish Bowl resource for highlighting phishing campaigns targeting the university community.
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