How COVID-19 Is Exposing New Opportunities For Cybercriminals

Cybercriminals see the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to target people working from home, as people are locked out into their homes to work and because of the COVID-19, taking their laptops and company data with them, if someone is working remotely; they are working on a network not directly controlled by their business. One security conference in India predict hackers may follow, seeking to take advantage of the current situation, organizations in affected countries across the globe are instructing their employees to work remotely, office workers have become used to working behind corporate firewalls on secure networks, the sudden transition would mean more scope for mistakes, this is why companies need to set up processes to enable staff to connect remotely to corporate systems securely.

Businesses should communicate clearly with workers to ensure they are aware of the risks, it has been well known for some time that a lot of smart devices are not secure, some hackers are using a malicious corona virus-themed app to hijack Android phones and experts’ forecasts that cyber-attacks will rise by forty percent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Computer viruses can spread just as easily as human viruses. One-third of organizations had suffered a data breach as a result of remote working.

COVID-19-infected bodily fluids are being sold on the dark web, anti-social people have always been a threat to humanity. Cybercriminals know people are looking for safety information and are more likely to click on links related to coronavirus pandemic criminals are seeking to capitalize on the widespread panic, cyber criminals are getting ready with malicious software and password-stealing messages as coronavirus-themed alerts and tech-support scams, the surge in virtual conferencing and other collaboration tools could expose more vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit. The more people who have access to your network, the more likely it is to be breached, Hackers do use E-mail as the main target seeking to steal personal information, financial data, security codes, and others. New computer viruses are always emerging, and you want to make sure your anti-virus catches everything it can. Hackers are using coronavirus updates to try to break into an unidentified government network, cybercriminals are alert to the work from home trend and they are doing what they can to use it to infiltrate into organizations if you are running critical infrastructure, in case of escalation, there can be circumstances where certain data need to be kept in isolation.

There are some easy ways to reduce online risks: you avoid opening emails from unknown parties or visiting untrusted websites. Just like maintaining good passwords, you should already be using two-factor authentication, which makes it necessary to have a password and a second method of verifying who you are to access an account. Businesses can help to protect their employees by ensuring anyone who connects to their network uses a Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and be on guard against a surge of malicious emails aimed at an already disoriented workforce. Make sure your computer operating systems are up to date. Change the default Wi-Fi password if you haven’t already. A simple rule in using communication tools is not to open any links from people you do not know. Click fraud is done by companies to deplete their competitor’s advertising budget or by websites to gain revenue. Click bots can also be used for click fraud. These small pieces of code can be spread like viruses on many computers to generate clicks from different IP addresses.  

We must think before accepting cookies, A cookie is a small file or text-only string registered in the memory of a web browser. It is used to identify a website user. Some web sites pay people from remote places to make fraudulent clicks on advertisements to inflate their customer’s bills. Don’t share the Wi-Fi password with your neighbors. Use a decentralized password manager to create a unique password for each website or service you use, if you can set up multiple networks on your router, does that. Build on this strong foundation by using a plethora of other tools that mask your IP address. You may use hand sanitizer to remove germs from your hands, and you should have an effective antivirus solution to keep germs off your computers and networks.