MULTAN, Jan 10 (APP): A senior information technology expert from CyberCrime Wing of the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) Multan Assistant Director Muhammad Ali Hashmi has urged the people to avoid purchasing SIMs (Subscriber Identification Modules) from makeshift stalls on roadsides to prevent chances of theft of their most precious property i.e their identity to prevent chances of it being exploited by wrong doers on the cyber space.

He was speaking at an awareness session on ‘cyber security and social media crimes’ organized by Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) with its Senior Vice President Nadeem Ahmad Sheikh in the chair on Tuesday night. Veteran and budding industrialists and entrepreneurs including former MCCI president Khawaja Muhammad Hussain, Syed Iftikhar Ali Shah, Naveed Iqbal Chughtai, Adnan Chughtai, Syed Saqib Ali, Pakistan Business Form Multan president Saleha Hassan, Kiran Amjad and others were among the participants.

Hashmi said that social media users or web surfers leave their foot prints on the web space either during simply browsing or making comment, sharing some post or liking it and advised them to be cautious on the cyber space lest they breach some law unknowingly which could invoke the law in case of complaint.

He advised the people to use credit cards or debt cards only at well reputed business places and enter code themselves while hiding it from others’ sight after inserting cards into machine to prevent chances of leakage of their information, which if went into unwanted hands, could cause people financial losses.

A participant on the occasion said that people should keep their credit cards or other bank cards in RFID blocking leather wallets so that no one could scan their cards by scanners. People should avoid sending images of their bank cards, CNICs or other personal details through messaging applications. They should protect their social media accounts and other accounts on web space through two-factor identification, they said.

Muhammad Ali Hashmi asked the people to avoid sharing their private content to any other social media user or any platform to avoid chances of being blackmailed by wrongdoers on cyber space.
He said, at makeshift stall, the people may offer free SIMs but while getting your thumb prints they may have put some paper on the machine to get your thumb print and then use it to get more SIMs in your name and use it for own purposes, criminal activities. That is why, National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has started getting prints of all fingers from people for CNIC issuance and now a days they are working on face recognition technology to make it more secure for the people, he told.