As the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) causes countless companies and employers to implement remote working environments, millions of Americans will be working from home. It is, therefore, critically important to remain vigilant about cybersecurity best practices.
As observed in recent news alerts, cybersecurity threats, perpetuated by opportunistic cyber-criminals preying on a vulnerable virtual workforce, are on the rise. In fact, hackers around the globe are latching on to news items and exploiting interest in the global epidemic to spread malicious activity. Consider, for example, that more than 4,000 coronavirus-related domains were registered globally since January. These domains are 50% more likely to be malicious than other domains registered during that same time period. See https://www.cybertalk.org/2020/03/06/coronavirus-themed-domains-50-more-likely-to-be-malicious-than-other-domains/
An additional malware campaign involved disseminating real-time, accurate information about global infection rates tied to the COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to infect computers with malicious software. In one scheme, the interactive dashboard of virus infections and death produced by Johns Hopkins University was used in malicious Web sites (and possibly spam emails) to spread password-stealing malware. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/03/live-coronavirus-map-used-to-spread-malware/
And so, there is no time like the present to review the critical, minimal steps you can take to protect yourself from falling victim to a cyber-threat.
See these prior posts for a summary of those steps:
“The Department of Homeland Security Reminds us of the Importance of Cybersecurity,”