JN urges customers to protect themselves against cyber-attacks

The JN Group Cybersecurity Unit has told the bank's customers to increase their vigilance when using email communications at this time. The bank said that there is currently a heightened risk of cyber-attacks from hackers affiliated with the Iranian Government, which has vowed to retaliate against the United States.

"Iran has a history of launching cyber-attacks against the U.S. and the financial services industry. In 2012 and 2013, Iranian-sponsored hackers launched Denial of Service attacks (DOS) against several major U.S. banks," JN said in an advisory to his customers.

The bank noted that the U.S. Government last June said it had observed “a recent rise in malicious cyber activity directed at U.S. industries and Government agencies by Iranian attackers, who were increasingly using highly destructive attacks that delete or encrypt data".

WAYS TO PROTECT AGAINST CYBER-ATTACKS

1. Always exercise caution when clicking on links and opening email attachments even when the sender is known.

2. Do not open attachments with the following extensions unless you have verified that the email attachment is legitimate: .exe, .js, .com, .scr, .Jar, .msc, .vb, .vbs, .Lnk, .reg, .docm

3. Do not click on links or open an attachment from someone you don’t know or are not expecting.

4. Emails using pressure tactics, for example, requesting that you act now by clicking a link to reset your password or else risk your account being disabled, is a strategy used by spammers to pressure users into clicking on links or downloading attachments.

5. Don’t always trust the sender’s name as this can be easily changed.
6. Protect your computer by installing security software such as Antivirus and host based security tools.