By Babajide Komolafe

NIGERIA Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF)has raised alarm over increasing social engineering attacks on bank customers.

Social engineering refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access.

Speaking at the quarterly NeFF forum held in Lagos on Friday, the NeFF Chairman, Mr. Dipo Fatokun expressed concern over increasing social engineering attacks on bank customers.

He said, “Social Engineering has become rife in cybercrime attacks in Nigeria. Almost on a daily basis, a plethora of messages are sent by these criminals with the express intent to con the unsuspecting recipient using techniques that appeal to vanity, greed or authority. It is therefore important that we look critically at measures that will protect the industry as a whole from the menace of social engineering attacks.”

Fatokun, who is also the Director, Banking and Payment System Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) called for concerted actions from operators to deal with the threat of social engineering. He said, “We must endeavor to raise critical issues bordering on social engineering as a vice and commit to dealing with them here, before we leave.”

Also speaking at the forum, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Zenith Bank PLC, Mr. Peter Amangbo stated that the advent of social engineering is an indication that technology alone is not enough to keep bank customers    and the system secured.

Social engineering entails scammers’ manipulation of human natural tendency to trust.

“Social engineers believe that people do not know the true worth of the information they possess. Social engineering provides the easiest and cheapest way of gaining access to unauthorised confidential information without hacking into a system.”

He noted that social engineers target confidential information such as: Bank account details, Unauthorised access to corporate systems, Credit/Debit card details, Atm pins, Identity theft, among others.

He said that to address the menace of social enginereering there is need to “Educate  customers and employees regularly and create    awareness on network and website changes.”