SAHPRA warns of phishing emails marked “Urgent” and “Follow-Up”

File photo: Laptop on a wooden table, Free-Photos/Pixabay via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0.

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has warned stakeholders about phishing emails carrying the subject lines “Urgent” and “Follow-Up”.

In a notice issued on Friday, 2 October, the regulator said it knew that some stakeholders had already clicked links in the messages.

SAHPRA urged anyone who receives an unexpected or suspicious email from a SAHPRA address to leave links and attachments unopened. Recipients should check whether the message is genuine through a trusted communication channel, especially if it makes an unusual request.

Once an email has been confirmed as illegitimate, it should be deleted, the authority said.

The notice did not state how many people had received the messages or whether any data had been compromised. It said SAHPRA was continuing to strengthen its cybersecurity measures to protect data and stakeholder information.