Cyber Criminals Abuse Worldwide: Corona Pandemic
The world is under the spell of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, cybercriminals take advantage of this. Different researches on cybercrime related to the coronavirus show that the number of related attacks increases.
Most of the time, cybercriminals promise information about measures of protection against the coronavirus or make rogue copies of legitimate sources of information about its distribution.
When people open this information, their computer gets infected with malware. The attacks are mainly targeting government agencies, healthcare companies, educational institutes, research organizations, and the leisure sector. But luckily, there are a few measures you can take to protect your organization from these cyber criminals.
Cybercriminals spread ‘information’ with malware
One of the ways cybercriminals abuse this situation is by spreading false information about the pandemic. For example, they spread fake world maps showing the number of common coronavirus infections or fake books or documents with information about the virus, supposedly from the WHO.
Internet users who open the information get infected with malware. Once this happens, the criminals attempt to steal sensitive data stored in the browser, such as credentials and credit card numbers.
Cyber criminals abuse worldwide: phishing mails
Another way cybercriminals operate is by sending phishing emails. They send emails that appear to come from government institutions of health organizations that promise an update on Corona but are actually intended to infect recipients with malware or steal personal information. These emails yield cybercriminals millions of dollars.
Hackers attack homeworkers
Homeworkers aren’t safe either. Actually, they are easy victims of cyber criminals. Due to the pandemic, there have been many attacks on companies that have switched to working from home.
Computer criminals try to steal passwords from homeworkers, and companies are now easier to infiltrate because many employees work remotely.
Counteract all this? Give your employees further instructions
In order to ward off cybercriminals, organizations need to instruct employees to be extra alert about emails related to the coronavirus. It’s of great importance that they understand the danger of just clicking on links or downloading attachments.
Awareness is the best solution. Also, this is the perfect moment to let experts check your IT environment on its security. IT companies that usually focus on, for example, server virtualization, repairing IT products, and maintaining them, now have more time and attention for the security of IT environments.
Proper IT management is more critical than ever. We wish you a lot of luck in keeping your IT environment safe. And of course, we hope you stay safe yourself as well!
