Exporters warned on cyber criminals

CEBU, Philippines - The reported incidence of cybercrime within the export sector has caused an alarm among Cebu exporters as well as traders in other parts of the country.

A report from PhilExport contained that the modus operandi of unscrupulous individuals is to hack exporters’ email accounts to collect payments from their foreign buyers.

Because of this the PhilExport issued a warning to exporters to be wary about this modus in the light of reports received from its exporter-members based in Cebu and Pampanga who were victimized by the cybercrime.

According to the report, unscrupulous individuals reportedly hack email addresses of exporters and use a new one to divert transactions of the exporters with their foreign buyers in their favor, particularly to collect payments for shipments.

Hackers instruct these foreign buyers to deposit payments into their accounts in other locally-based banks not owned by the legitimate exporters and entrepreneurs.

Victim-exporters have already sought the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) so they could recover the money as soon as possible and put in prison the cyber criminals.

PhilExport has advised exporters to be vigilant and to warn their buyers against these “syndicates” to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Recently, internet security provider Kaspersky Lab warned entrepreneurs in Cebu that businesses nowadays are more prone to online fraud, thus the company has heightened its awareness drive urging companies to protect their businesses from increasing cybercrime cases.

Kaspersky Lab business development manager Bryan Sat said that companies and organizations are most vulnerable to become victims of online crimes than individual internet users as cyber-criminals today are smarter, more aggressive and more sophisticated in carrying out their attacks.

He further stressed that this is the age of high-profile targeted attacks directed towards the enterprise sector which means accessing classified, highly-valuable data translates to more money for cyber-criminals than if they were to target individual internet users.

Although, he said in the Philippines companies are starting to make use of technology and tools to protect online attacks, however small and medium enterprises, which comprise of 99 percent of the country’s businesses still has to widen their understanding on how online fraud or cyber-crime will affect their businesses—big time.

Cebu, which is one of the largest economically progressive cities in the Philippines, Sat said potentially face such business risks if their IT networks and infrastructure will lack enough protection against cybercrime.

To stay in the game, Sat stressed that Cebuanos should look into the security aspects of their businesses to avoid falling prey to cyber crime and possibly incurring business losses.

“Unfortunately, any business, whether it is small or a large one, as long as it has a network that is connected to the Internet will always be vulnerable to online threats. And business in Cebu are not exempted from becoming possible cyber crime victims,” he said.

He said companies here in Cebu need the right kind of protection that is easily-managed, flexible, and cost-effective. /JOB (FREEMAN)