Public warned to be careful about web pages that seek sensitive personal information purportedly for election purposes

BY Saman Indrajith

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) has urged the general public to be careful when confronted with webpages that seek sensitive personal information for alleged election purposes.

SLCERT Senior Information Security Engineer Charuka Damunupola told the media on Thursday that they hadcome across a website collecting sensitive personal information, which closely resembled the official Elections Commission website.

“This website has adverts on recruiting employees for various public sector institutions ahead of the election. Those who seek employment were prompted to fill out a questionnaire which collects personal information. At the end, a message instructed them to share a final link among several WhatsApp groups,” he added.

Following several complaints. SLCERT took immediate action to shut down the website.

“We are under no illusions that this is the only website of this nature. I am sure there are many such websites and many new ones will spring up,” he said.

Damunupola said these attempts at collecting personal information is in line with a marked increase in online scams in recent years. 80 percent of the complaints they receive are related to social media, he said.

“Most Sri Lankans don’t understand how valuable personal information is. They also do not care much about people getting access to copies of their identity cards, etc. Cyber-criminals can use the copy of an NIC and open an online bank account. If that account is used for criminal activity, investigators might end up suspecting the person whose NIC was used,” he said.