Banking – Prevention Campaign

10th December, 2012

Banks conduct joint prevention campaign about precautions when shopping online.

With the motto “Safety also cares this Christmas”, APB Interbank Forum for Online Security, to which important financial institutions in the country belong, is conducting an awareness and prevention campaign this Christmas to draw attention to the precautions we need to take when shopping online. There is also an increase in criminal activity, such as phishing and other types of attack on internet access at this time of year.

This is the third joint awareness campaign of this kind and it begins on 10 December. It will be available on the banks' websites until 7 January 2013. The first two awareness campaigns were in July and December last year.

The campaign talks about online shopping and the importance of checking the seller's data, updating antivirus systems, security programs and firewalls, not answering emails of unknown origin and not installing programs of doubtful reliability.

We must not forget that the protection of any computer depends mainly on its users and failure to follow some basic rules is like opening the door of your home to strangers. Now that almost everyone has internet access, some email users give out personal or private information and follow links to bogus websites with all the harmful consequences. Many of them follow the instructions in emails and are cheated by people who want to obtain data for improper use.


We must remember that the harmful effects of phishing, in its broadest sense, are not only reduced by technology that the banks have in place, but which is also expensive, but also depend on users, who must not allow themselves to be fooled by the arguments of cyber-criminals.
Tal como no mundo real, também no ciberespaço, os criminosos tentam sempre obter benefícios por meios ilícitos.

As in the real world, criminals in cyberspace are always seeking illegal benefits. More and more people are using home-banking systems and this is one of the areas in which criminals operate. The situation is exacerbated by the transnational nature of these crimes, which makes them harder to investigate. Phishing attacks and malware used in cybercrime are getting more sophisticated and harder to detect for even security-conscious users.

The Christmas campaign conducted by the Interbank Forum for Online Security is designed to tell internet users about some of the precautions they can take to protect their accesses and therefore their property.

The banks have been using their websites and other media to inform their customers how to protect their computers.

See some recommendations on safe shopping here.

Keep your information and your computer safe and have a Happy Christmas!