Tackling the Cybersecurity Impacts of the Coronavirus Outbreak as a Challenge to Internet Safety (original) (raw)
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COVID-19 Pandemic Fuels Rise in Cybercrime
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COVID-19 pandemic obliged thousands of companies pertaining to all economic sectors to undergo the transformation from on-board work to working from home. Along such rush, the probability for companies being hacked incremented many folds. According to VMware cybersecurity strategist Tom Kellermann, quoted in Menn (2020), “There is a digitally historic event occurring in the background of this pandemic, and that is there is a cybercrime pandemic that is occurring” (para 5). In fact, Software and security company VMware Carbon Black declared during April, “that ransomware attacks it monitored jumped 148% in March from the previous month, as governments worldwide curbed movement to slow the spread of the novel corona virus” (Para 4). On the other hand, Anft (2020) reported that “more than 500 educational institutions, including colleges and K-12 schools, faced ransom attacks in 2019” (para 2). This paper uses a descriptive qualitative approach to shed light on the aforementioned subjec...
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The COVID-19 pandemic was a remarkable unprecedented event which altered the lives of billions of citizens globally resulting in what became commonly referred to as the new-normal in terms of societal norms and the way we live and work. Aside from the extraordinary impact on society and business as a whole, the pandemic generated a set of unique cyber-crime related circumstances which also affected society and business. The increased anxiety caused by the pandemic heightened the likelihood of cyber-attacks succeeding corresponding with an increase in the number and range of cyber-attacks. This paper analyses the COVID-19 pandemic from a cyber-crime perspective and highlights the range of cyber-attacks experienced globally during the pandemic. Cyber-attacks are analysed and considered within the context of key global events to reveal the modus-operandi of cyber-attack campaigns. The analysis shows how following what appeared to be large gaps between the initial outbreak of the pandemic in China and the first COVID-19 related cyber-attack, attacks steadily became much more prevalent to the point that on some days, 3 or 4 unique cyber-attacks were being reported. The analysis proceeds to utilise the UK as a case study to demonstrate how cyber-criminals leveraged key events and governmental announcements to carefully craft and design cyber-crime campaigns.
Cyber Threats and Attack Vectors during COVID-19
International Journal For Research In Applied Science & Engineering Technology, 2020
The ongoing world pandemic caused by COVID19 has had a significant impact on cyber incidents and has led to a sharp increase in cybercrime activity. The shift of a large proportion of users to remote work has increased their use of ICT systems. The inadequate observance of cyber-hygiene norms and low awareness has turned large parts of users into vulnerable groups, and the cybercriminals benefited from it. Cybercriminals started phishing campaigns using social engineering and COVID19 related issues. They have created fake online resources and content with the aim to infect users and spread malware. During the pandemic, phishing attacks increased significantly and became dominant. Cybercriminals use e-mail as the main source of malware, they also actively create fake online resources and applications that are as close as possible to real sought-after and up-to-date content. Not only the activity of cybercriminals for financial gain was revealed as one of the motives of cyber-attacks, but political purposes play a big part in it also. The number of attacks increased in all sectors, including governments, industry, healthcare, service providers, critical infrastructure, and consumers. The current trend in cyber-attacks has highlighted the importance of cybersecurity in modern challenges and business processes, across all areas. The level of user awareness and adherence to proper rules of cyber hygiene was manifested as an important and critical link. Because only at the technical level, even in the presence of cybersecurity controls, the user is a vulnerable and important group in the whole security chain.