Beware the "Lost in Spain/Algeria" scam this CNY

How many Singaporeans will become victims of this scam?

As most Singaporeans plan for their overseas trips over Chinese New Year, Assurity Trusted Solutions (Assurity) would like to remind them to return to basics and secure their passwords for a cyber crime-free holiday. This is especially important for those who intend to travel overseas during Chinese New Year and who do not wish to fall victim to "Lost in Spain/Algeria"-type scams.

Mr Chai Chin Loon, Chief Operating Officer of Assurity says, “Usernames and passwords are the first line of defence against cyber crime. Unfortunately, most people have a simple, universal password instead of unique, complex passwords for their different accounts. This makes their accounts (email, online banking, online securities trading etc.) vulnerable to hacking.”

To raise awareness of the importance of using unique, complex passwords and changing one's passwords regularly, Assurity has teamed up with the School of Informatics & IT from Temasek Polytechnic to host a cyber security exhibition on their campus from 21 to 22 Jan 13. Students and the public can look forward to educational pamphlets, interactive cyber security games and lucky-draw redemptions. At the same time, there will also be information on the OneKey two-factor authentication (2FA) device.

Chin Loon says, “2FA forms an important second line of defence against identity theft and online fraud. Most Singaporeans have received their new keypad tokens with transaction signing function to authenticate their online banking and securities trading transactions. However, we have received feedback of confusion over the different functions of the keypad tokens, especially transactions signing. At the exhibition, we will demonstrate the use of transaction signing, and reinforce the message of transaction signing being a key defence against Man-in-the-Middle attacks.”

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