SANTO DOMINGO. – The growing and widespread use of information and communication technologies exposes people to a greater risk of suffering some type of cybercrime, which is why the Association of Multiple Banks of the Dominican Republic (ABA) offered useful recommendations to citizens through its "Don't Get Caught" initiative, focused on preventing the modality known as phishing.
Through its cybersecurity platform yonavegoseguro.com.do, the ABA warns that phishing is a social engineering technique used by cybercriminals to impersonate public and private entities with the intention of obtaining sensitive information or infecting the device.
The ABA highlights that in the national territory, the proportion of people over 10 years of age who have access to technological devices is 81.2%; that is, that out of every 10 people there are eight who have, at least, a cell phone with which they access the Internet, according to data from the 2022 Enhogar Survey of the National Statistics Office (ONE).
The banking association points out that "apart from the benefits that greater connectivity brings to the population, this scenario also brings with it an exposure to cybercrimes that cause emotional, social and economic harm to users.".
It points out that, according to the Enhogar 2022 survey, the population over 10 years of age who used the internet in the 12 months prior to the study were victims of some form of cybercrime, among which the redirection to fraudulent pages stands out, one of the forms of Phishing.
Some recommendations
According to IBM's definition, phishing attacks can be emails, text messages, phone calls, or fraudulent websites designed to manipulate people into downloading harmful viruses, sharing confidential information, or taking other actions that expose themselves or their organizations to cybercrime, the trade association explains.
As part of the Don't Get Caught initiative, the ABA recommends the following preventative actions:
- Verify that the email sender and domain name belong to the person they claim to be.
- Inspect the message for spelling or grammatical errors.
- Do not open attachments that have not been requested without being sure of their validity.
- Avoid clicking on links sent from unknown numbers, and if you do know the sender, make sure they actually sent it.
- Please note that no financial institution or store will send text messages asking you to update your personal information or confirm your card's CVV code.
The association invites citizens to visit the website www.yonavegoseguro.com.do, where they can find details of these and other cybersecurity recommendations.
