These are overwhelming times for all of us.
Stress, burnout, and anxiety are at a global high, locking many of us out of the flow.
Coronavirus: it’s what every news outlet and person is talking about. With the outbreak of the infection, people want to stay up to date on the latest news and reports, so they’re looking up data and clicking on links to outbound websites
They’re also getting a lot of inbound content related to coronavirus: emails with healthcare best practices from internal employees, confirmation from trade shows on whether or not the events are getting cancelled, and updates from organisations they are a part of.
And when there is a consistent set of news that is being hyped about the Coronavirus, there is also an opportunity for an attacker to take advantage of such a situation.
It’s common practice for these malicious actors to leverage current events to compromise people.
This is a major opportunity for hackers!
Given, that people all over the world are in a state of anxiety, apprehension and high alert, the perception and awareness to scams diminish very quickly.
Our primary concern is for oneself – our physical health. If you ever come across Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you will see that the first three needs deal with your physiology, safety and belonging.
Cybercriminals will latch on to news items that captivate the public attention, but they usually do it by sensationalising the topic or spreading misinformation about it.
Example:
Cybercriminals have started disseminating real-time, accurate information about global infection rates tied to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to infect computers with malicious software.
In one scheme, an interactive dashboard of Coronavirus infections and deaths produced by Johns Hopkins University is being used in malicious Web sites (and possibly spam emails) to spread password-stealing malware.
Want can you do?
Be vigilant knowing that coronavirus is a known subject being used to compromise you.
If you received some information that you didn’t ask for it, then don’t click on the link or open the attachment.
Make sure your computer devices are up to date with the latest software.
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