These days, most people are aware that cybercrime is a very real and ever-increasing threat. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many workers were forced to work remotely for the first time, from their bedrooms, living rooms and kitchen. Terms like ‘phishing’ and ‘ransomware’ are now frequently seen and heard, but there is another type of threat that has seen a huge increase in frequency in 2020 – Business Email Compromise.
Read moreNew ‘Copyright’ Phishing Scam Uses Website Contact Forms
Earlier this month, Microsoft threat analysts released an alert in a blog post warning organisations of a new attack vector being used to deploy malware.
Read moreUsers Warned of Major New Phishing Campaign, Using Infected Excel Files
Microsoft has released a statement warning users to stay vigilant of phishing emails, as a malicious campaign has been detected which tricks users into downloading an Excel sheet containing harmful software. The criminals responsible are taking advantage of the confusion around Covid-19, as many others have been doing lately, to convince users that the emails are genuine and to enable macros within Excel once the file has been downloaded to their computer.
Read moreTech Guard Tips: How to Work from Home Securely
Just a few months ago, it would be unimaginable that so many of us would be working from home. While more and more companies had been allowing some users to work remotely to some degree, the situation that we now find ourselves in is that a significant chunk of the workforce is now working from their homes, on very short notice.
As the Covid19 pandemic grips the world, cyber criminals have seen this increased online activity and confusion as an opportunity for them to take advantage of, and have stepped up phishing and scam attacks. We’ve already covered some of the main threats to look out for in another article, but now we’d like to share some of our tips on making sure you protect your company and your family’s data while working from home.
Here at Tech Guard, we’ve come up with a handy list of our top security tips for those who find themselves suddenly working from home.
Read morePhishing Scams, Corona Anti-Virus, Free Ransomware Decryption & More: Cybercrime in the Era of Covid19
These are undoubtedly strange times we are living in, with unprecedented changes taking place in our lives all over the globe in order to fight the pandemic that is Covid19. Suddenly, a sizeable chunk of the workforce is working from home, in many cases for the first time. Companies are scrambling to put in place plans to accommodate this, working out whether to allow users to use their own devices, or provide company laptops or desktops for any displaced staff. Moreover, many people are out of work altogether and confined to their homes, spending significantly more time than usual browsing the internet, looking for the next clue online that will bring some certainty to their lives around the crisis they are living through.
With such a shift in online activity comes great challenges for technology companies and IT teams in ensuring their users are safe and their precious company data is secure – meanwhile cyber criminals have seen crisis as opportunity; the misfortune of others is a chance for them to take advantage of the confusion and make some extra money.
The Covid19 pandemic is the perfect storm for cyber criminals to up the ante. Confusion reigns among users and misinformation is rife. Users who would normally be at work are now accessing the internet from home devices, which typically are not sitting behind the advanced firewalls, email filters and policies put in place by their organisations to protect them against malicious activity.
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