The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a notice warning brokerage firms about extensive phishing attacks (phishing).
FINRA is a non-profit organization and self-regulatory body authorized by the U.S. government to regulate markets and brokerage firms.
According to FINRA, the organization oversees over 624,000 brokers across the country.
Phishing emails sent from a fake FINRA domain
The financial industry regulator said the phishing emails are sent from a fake FINRA domain and are made to look like those sent by FINRA.
Member firms are asked to complete a survey by October 13, with the information required by FINRA to “update the rules of conduct and supervision.”
“The email was sent from the domain ‘@regul-finra.org’ and is preceded by ‘info’ followed by a number, e.g., info5@regulation-finra.org”, the organization said.
“FINRA recommends that anyone who clicked on any link or image in the email immediately notify their firm’s security department of the incident.”
Because the domain regul-finra.org is in no way affiliated with FINRA, member firms are urged to delete any email they receive from this domain.
FINRA also asked NameCheap, the domain registrar used to register this domain four days ago, to suspend services for regul-finra.org.
“FINRA reminds firms that they should verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email before responding to it, opening any attachments or clicking on any embedded links,” the announcement states.
In August, FINRA warned members about some attackers using registered broker information to create convincing phishing websites.
