Fake FINRA Survey Is a Phishing Scam, Regulator Warns BDs

The BD regulator also reminded firms to make sure they “verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email prior to responding to it, opening any attachments or clicking on any embedded links.”

For more information, firms are being told to review the resources provided on FINRA’s Cybersecurity Topic Page, including the Phishing section of its Report on Cybersecurity Practices -2018.

Hackers and other bad actors have been having a field day since the start of the pandemic. In August, just days after warning about a new impostor FINRA website that has an extra “n” in its domain name, the BD regulator warned that malicious actors were also setting up impostor websites using registered reps’ names.

According to Federal Bureau of Investigation data cited in June, the number of cybersecurity complaints had spiked to 4,000 a day from 1,000 complaints a day four months earlier. And those four months’ worth of complaints were almost more than reported for all of 2019.

In addition, a May 2020 survey of financial institutions found 80% reported a 238% increase in cyberattacks compared to last year.

In May, Bill Wollman, an executive vice president at FINRA and head of its office of Financial and Operational Risk Policy, said fraud continued to be a major challenge that broker-dealers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the “biggest potential problem” being phishing attacks.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

• COVID-19 Gives Cybercriminals New Ways to Attack
• SEC Issues Ransomware Alert