UnionBank opted out the use of clickable website links in its promotional communication materials amidst cyber threats and online frauds.
UNIONBANK — On Tuesday, the Union Bank of the Philippines said that it has opted not to use clickable website links in its promotional communication materials in order to protect consumers from being victims of online fraud such as smishing and phishing.
UnionBank said in a statement that the initiative formed part of the bank’s proactive measures in an effort to address the surge in “smishing” attempts made via fraudulent text messages to customers.
The bank also said that it had intensified its cybersecurity information drive in order to raise awareness of the cyber security risks involved in holiday seasonal shopping — including fake websites, data swipes, phishing scams, and infected website links.
UnionBank senior executive vice president, chief technology and operations officer, and chief transformation officer Henry Aguda said that forward-thinking banks were embracing technological innovations in order to re-define customer experience in terms of financial health, security, and wealth.
“Despite the conveniences technology provides, recent events have shown us how quickly our lives and businesses can be disrupted when cybercriminals use technology to do harm,” Aguda said.
Aguda also said that UnionBank was continuously fortifying IT security solutions in order to further protect Filipinos from those vulnerabilities.
In addition, Aguda said that they’re complementing the measure with their information campaign in order to offer Filipinos actionable guidance on how they can practice safe online behavior and can protect themselves from cyber perpetrators.
“If everyone does their part, the interconnected banking world will be more resilient for everyone,” Aguda said.
UnionBank advised its consumers not to click on links in emails or text messages, no matter how realistic they look, and urged them to always check the email sender and go directly to its official app, “UnionBank Online”, in order to verify their transactions.
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The bank also urged its consumers to be careful about what they publicly shared on social media as fraudsters gathered data by looking up email addresses online.
UnionBank said that the bank set up an integrated operations center (IOC), which was a collaborative facility to address the growing cybersecurity concerns.
This, according to UnionBank, allowed the bank to respond to cyber threats faster, as well as to provide remediation steps and coordinate the incident response across groups more effectively.
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