Information Security Tips


Dear customer,

 To protect yourself from the danger of fraud, kindly ignore incoming calls, phone application messages, or e-mails confirming winning in international competitions, prizes, or any other purposes, such as arranging procedures for obtaining inheritance (the inheritance scam) or to exchange currencies such as frozen dollars at very favorable rates and requesting a call back to an international number. Furthermore, providing them with data about your bank account or transferring funds from your accounts to other parties for the purposes of completing the fees for obtaining and receiving these prizes or funds. If you receive any calls related to the above, please inform the bank immediately.

 Please note that the bank does not request any data related to your bank account numbers and details, electronic card numbers and data, banking applications, or passwords through phone calls or e-mails.

HBTF is keen to keep its customer's information secure as one of its priorities, therefore HBTF Security Policy emphasizes the necessity of taking all measures to protect customers' information, the following are some of these measures and actions: Implementing specialized systems for Anti-Virus and Authentication, Encryption of customers’ data while in transmission to protect against theft, as well as using the latest and most rigid Firewalls and Security Devices.

Following are some Information Security tips that HBTF customers should consider

Password Security

Password: is the authorization key to your account information. The best ways to protect your password:
  • Use a password with at least eight characters
  • You have to use a complex password that contains letters, numbers, and special characters like ( *, & , #, @, etc ..) so that it will not be easily hacked
  • Don’t tell anybody about your password
  • Don’t write your password; try to memorize it instead
  • Change your password regularly
  • Don’t use an easy guessing password, like your father name, your name, your phone number, your birthday,…etc
  • Don’t use any frequent letters or numbers like (1234,aaaa)
  • Many websites provide password-safe services in case you forget it, so be careful of these services and don’t accept them
  • When you change your password, don’t choose an old one
  • Change your password immediately if you suspect that others know your password
  • Do not enter passwords when others can observe what you are typing

Identity theft

Is a form of fraud whereby hackers steal your identity, your data, and your personal information so as to impersonate you. below are some examples of personal data vulnerable to theft:

  • Account number
  • Username, password
  • Credit card number, CVV, Expiry date
  • Card’s PINs
  • Phone number, Birthday, Address

The best ways to avoid identity theft

  • Don’t trust any message or anyone asking about your personal information by phone or by email
  • Destroy all un-needed sensitive information such as ( Transaction receipts, Statements of Account, and data either by shredding or using another secure method that ensures complete destruction of the documents
  • Keep monitoring your accounts and ask about your transactions periodically
  • Always check your invoices to make sure that you do not have any items you didn’t buy
  • Don’t carry any sensitive data or passwords in your wallet
  • Subscribe via SMS services to monitor your account transactions
  • Avoid logging into your account From public or untrusted Wi-Fi
  • When buying over the internet, use an internet paying card for buying, and don’t use a credit card
  • Don’t keep your password on your phone or laptop
  • Don’t enter your personal information or password to any website if it doesn’t begin with HTTPS:\\

Remember: the bank will never ask you to retrieve your account, or about your personal information or credit card number and also will not ask you about your user name and password.

Internet phishing

Phishing is another way of hacking to acquire sensitive information such as card numbers and password and use it in an illegal way.

Where hackers (phishers) send thousands of fake emails that may seem to be from trustworthy sources, like your bank, and ask you about your personal information or link you to a faked website that is built and used for illegal transactions.

Some Advice to protect you from phishing

  • Be careful of people who ask you about your personal information
  • Don’t tell anyone about your password or personal information by phone, email or any other electronic way
  • Be careful from those emails which inform you of winning because they are not from your bank, they are from hackers, phishers, never respond back to those emails
  • Be sure you are connecting to HBTF formal and secured website, where the bank is providing encrypted communications with this site along with a security certificate to demonstrate that the intended site is properly secured and registered, bear in mind that these implemented measures have been taken to protect your personal information and credit cards details

Some Advice to protect you from hacking through  ATM machines and cards

  • Keep a distance from people around you near the ATM machine
  • Watch carefully the ATM that you intend to use, if you notice strange things like wires, devices …etc do not use that ATM
  • If you try to insert your ATM card and it doesn’t enter smoothly, do not try to enforce it
  • You have to cover the keypad when typing in your PIN