Cyber criminals are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to escalate their attacks against organizations and private individuals. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security has reported increased criminal activity aimed at defrauding victims through their fear of COVID-19 as a tactic.
Extra awareness is needed to defeat these attacks and tactics. We must not become complacent in these unprecedented and challenging times when perhaps our focus is elsewhere, and we are distracted.
In January 2020, a number of spam or phishing emails emerged that referenced COVID-19, and by early March they represented a significant percentage of all malicious email traffic. In addition, an increasing number of malicious websites are being created using COVID-19, or a related term, with more than 42,000 sites being registered since early February. Many organizations have employees working from home for the first time and that poses further risks.
Common methods of increased cyber-attack activity include the following:
Creation of malicious websites e.g., a fake Johns Hopkins University or Sunnybrook Hospital website that offers an online diagnostic tool.
Fake COVID-19 tracker smartphone apps appearing to represent government agencies.
Ransomware can be accidentally downloaded through a number of the means outlined above. When downloaded, the software uses unbeatable encryption to lock all your files and prevent access to them. Once installed, the fraudsters will demand a cash payment to unlock your device, usually with an expiry date, at which point all your data will be deleted. There is no way to circumnavigate this encryption without extreme intervention and resources, not available to most private organizations.
Many cyber-attacks can be defeated by following good practices and implementing basic security controls. These include the following:
All rights reserved.
