Digital literacy a must for bank card holders after recent cyber fraud incident

In light of the recent cyber fraud incident, in which 40,000 people were victimised in Thailand, a cybersecurity expert is emphasizing the need for digital literacy. Prinya Hom-anek, president of the ACIS Professional Centre, an IT security consulting service, says bank card holders are the most vulnerable in the payment ecosystem. This vulnerability sees criminals targetting the group first, as many still aren’t aware that debit and credit cards can be used to make online purchases.

Such digital literacy includes receiving and monitoring SMS notifications when a transaction is made on one’s account, as the recent incident saw criminals succeed in withdrawing small amounts of funds frequently. In regards to the scam, the Bank of Thailand and Thai Bankers’ Association has stated that no commercial banks’ systems had been hacked and the irregular transactions were for payment to online shops registered overseas.

Prinya says there are 3 crucial cybersecurity trends that will start in 2022. The first trend includes users needing to become digitally literate to fend off attackers.

“We cannot focus only on tackling technical problems, but need to educate people so as to eliminate risk.”

The 2nd is in the vulnerabilities of supply chains, in which cyberattacks can happen in any unit of the chains, opening the door for attacks through the same supply chain. He says a proper security standards must be in place throughout the chain. Such examples include attacks coming from suppliers or 3rd parties that are connected with organisations.

In response to the predicted upcoming trends, the US has issued a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification that sets a standard which needs to be applied by companies bidding for projects of the Department of Homeland Security to ward off security risks. The standards may affect other companies in the supply chain, including Thailand. Prinya says this standard needs to be applied in Thailand by making a Thai version of the CMMC to get prepared.

The last trend is enacting a zero trust design. This means that people must not trust any devices to access data, and perform frequent checks to detect any suspicious transactions. Recently, banks have confirmed that they will refund money to the victims of the recent cyber fraud incident. Payong Srivanich, chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association, says banks will pay back money to the victims of these cases within 5 business days for debit card holders. For those holding credit cards, the banks will cancel suspicious transactions while not collecting interest or fees for the transactions from cardholders. Payong also said the banks will close affected credit card accounts and open new ones for customers, all free of charge.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post