November 10, 2020
The popular worldwide coronavirus pandemic has not only played havoc with global health but has also caused drastic changes in the day to day livelihood of people. One such major change is the increase in usage of the internet. As a result of which dependency on digital tools and online platforms has increased globally which paved way for increased cyberattacks.
Apart from the spike in the number of phishing and ransomware attacks, a considerable increase is seen in impersonation attacks by 30%. Coronavirus-related spam messages have taken over social media within a few days of the outbreak. Earlier this year, it is revealed by Palo Alto Networks (PAWN) that around 1800 malicious domains related to coronavirus have been registered, mainly targeting the US audience. Hackers are impersonating trusted organizations or individuals to dupe recipients by offering licit services, causing a leak of personal information and login credentials. Besides these frequent cyber-attacks to obtain private data, the pandemic has brought a whole new dimension of attacking strategies:
World Health Organisation (WHO) has witnessed a rigorous increase of cyber-attacks targeting its staff, with their email address leaked. In addition to that, imposters posing as WHO officials came up with schemes of fake donations in the name of the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
As people started working from home, hackers started targeting video communication platforms to infiltrate into video sessions, stealing significant information, and circulating fake apps impersonating Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other similar video conferencing applications.
Millions of American citizens were offered economic impact payments under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act which became a popular target of the attackers. Emails were sent to the victims under name of such relief packages, guiding them to fake login pages where the final payment was allegedly being delivered.
Cyber-attacks targeting the US elections were widespread recently. People involved from both sides of the campaign, both Trump and Biden, were attacked. Certain groups operating from various countries attacked high-profile members from both the campaigns and caused political distress.
Major public figures such as Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and many others got caught up in the recent series of Twitter attacks. Their accounts having millions of followers were utilized for a cryptocurrency scam where the followers were tricked and asked to send cryptocurrency to a certain bitcoin wallet to get double money return.
Top-notch cybersecurity is a must, especially during this pandemic. Here are three reasons why:
Worldwide public-sector offices or businesses have effectively enforced the concept of work from home which has considerably spiked the dependency on digital platforms. Also, the Internet has been made the default medium of human interaction, and information is relayed mostly by digital means. A sudden cyber-attack leading to denied access to the internet can cause fatal disruption in the functioning of today’s world.
With more time spent online, one is more likely to fall for fraudulent websites or pirated shows, making their computer system exposed to malware attacks. Now there are increased risks in viewing or installing random applications, or clicking on wrong links. Especially in this pandemic, expanding surfing habits can be dangerous and costly.
Taking advantage of the fear and anxiety of people in this crisis, cybercriminals have continued their rampage of exploitation with new schemes. Recently, a cyber-attack targeting the global audience looking for visuals related to the coronavirus attack has been reported. A map displaying statistics of coronavirus cases taken from a legitimate site contained malware that infiltrated the defense of the system and provided hackers with access to saved passwords.
Just as the global pandemic has incorporated new norms and habits into our daily lifestyle like that of social distancing and usage of sanitizer to minimize the spread of the virus, a change in our online conduct can effectively maximize cybersecurity level. Usage of long and complex passwords for home wifi and reliable VPN for internet access are some of the measures.
What most people think is that cybersecurity is a measure taken to protect an organization from external attacks. However, the security starts from the most basic level of the organization i.e. it starts internally, from the employees’ user domain. So first and foremost, it is to be kept in mind that an internally secured user domain of the IT infrastructure is important. Secondly, training is crucial for employees to make sure that the security of their user domain is intact. Another effective measure to ensure cybersecurity is patch management which lets the organization stay up-to-date with all the software patches and updates from all third-party software. The absence of proactive patch management can cause major breaches.
Whether real or virtual, viruses, if neglected can cause significant loss. So utmost maintenance in terms of personal and cyber hygiene in the physical and digital world respectively is mandatory in this time of crisis.
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