The Ringing Alarm Bells over Growing Cyberattacks

Under the garb of coronavirus and its related threats, hackers have increased cyberattacks across the globe. Even global organizations like WHO isn’t left unaffected. According to the organization, it has witnessed five-fold increase in the number of attacks directed towards it compared to the last year. On the other hand, the number of attacks on personal computer network, routers and unprotected home networks too as professionals are asked to work from home in the wake of coronavirus a.k.a. COVID19.

Overcoming the pandemic is not near, and we have to gulp this fact down our throat. Hence the world is adapting to the new work culture (working remotely), which acts as a breeding ground for the hackers to exploit the opportunity where most employees work using private, insecure machines. Even the officials at Ministry of Home Affairs said that there are more than 3,000 new websites related to Covid19 with several hundred of them being fake, either with dangerous content or incorrect information.

According to a report by McAfee titled ‘COVID-19: Malware Makes Hay During a Pandemic’, there is a dramatic increase in the pandemic-themed threat landscape activity.

The threats typically leverage a phishing email delivery method, with coronavirus themes and messages developed to lure employees and family members into engaging with and enabling threats to gain a foothold on their systems. The report further highlights that once the foothold is established, it can allow the attackers to download malware used to steal corporate usernames and passwords, data monitor employee user activity, capture user keystrokes, track network traffic and browser activity, and infiltrate networks and cloud services beyond the home. The attackers impersonate their victims to send emails from the infected machines to propagate themselves on numerous other systems. McAfee report also mentions that in case of ransomware, the attackers could encrypt system files and refuse to decrypt them until the victim sends them a ransom payment.

McAfee also observed few other kinds of cyber threats akin to phishing and Trojan, bogus SBA loan emails, scam COVID-19 tests, scam antibody research & treatment, precautionary measures, fake John Hopkins Infection map, bogus insurance invoices, COVID-19 ransomware, and spam & scam. But as the cybercriminals get sharper and finds new ways of targeting, they will keep creating more sophisticated attacks. It is important that the companies must formulate the right combination of technology and educate their employees to ensure the attacks are kept at bay. As the pandemic doesn’t seems going anytime soon, it is important that we learn the art of keeping cyberattacks at bay by devising better strategies and technologies.