Are You A Sitting Duck For Cyber Criminals?
The global pandemic Coved-19 is the single greatest contributor to changing the workplace to working remotely and working from home.
All of us here at WA are working from anywhere we please building our online business. Therefore we should pay attention to this trend.
A recent survey of IT organizations with 500 employee or more resulted in the following findings:
- 71% of respondents reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the outbreak of the virus.
- The most prevalent of these were phishing attempts (cited by 55% of respondents), disinformation from malicious websites (32%) and increases in malware (28%).
- Covid-19 related websites are 50% more likely to be malicious than other domains registered since the beginning of this year
- The number of new domains registered online has exploded tenfold since the end of February 2020, with 0.8% of these domains found to be malicious and 19% to be suspicious in nature.
So, it looks like the locked down has also resulted in criminal activities going online.
Be Safe Online
While we are trying to stay say from Corona virus, we also need to be safe online now that we are spending more hours connected.
The is an increasing risks of Cyber crimes.
Beware of:
- Hackers targeting unsuspecting users by offering them fake “once-in-a-lifetime” Covid-19 deals for premium goods concealing malware within
- Hackers have even taken to the dark web to provide special offers on hacking equipment and services using “COVID-19” or “corona virus” as a discount code, increasing the likelihood of Cyber attacks occurring.
- Request for personal information in any form. Check to ensure known source before providing information
Take Precaution
To ensure security and business continuity for those working from home and all at WA. It means practicing some digital hygiene.
- Make sure your Internet security, malware and firewall software is activated
- Be cautious with emails and files from unknown sources, particularly those offering lucrative discounts on purchases and to only order goods from authentic sources by visiting their website directly.
- Be cautious about opening unknown attachments or links in emails.
- Even Zoom has security loopholes that allows hackers to access your computer, you can google that
- When no using your computer, best to shut down so there is nothing running in the background. Do a daily shutdown or reboot for safety sake.
While we are washing hands more regularly, now that your online hours have increased and Cyber criminals are lurking...
Remember it is just as important to keep up your "Cyber hygiene," too.
Take care and stay safe.
Recent Comments
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Great list and I do all of the things you listed. I got scammed quite a while ago and learned my lesson. I'm a lot more suspicious than I use to be. If I'm unsure I check to see who sent the email and find, more often than not, they're fake.
The other thing I do is if it's from a company like Amazon or PayPal I forward the email to their fraud department. It's usually on their website or you can give them a call.
And, as you said I'm seeing more and more phishing attempts. Sad that there so many unethical people out there who would rather steal than have a legitimate business.
Thanks for sharing, Elaine. Great point on checking with PayPal or Amazon. I believe there was a PayPal scam going around and some members receive the emails. Better be safe than sorry.
Yes, there was a PayPal scam and I was one who got the email. Obviously, I forwarded it to their fraud department. I love to forward these emails. It's my way of contributing to stopping them (I hope!!)
Good Morning Stanley,
That is very good advice. Personally I have not noticed anything suspicious yet but will be on alert.
I always unplug everything at night before going to sleep and during the day I switch off my computer quite a few times.
I have updated my websites to the new Word Press and I have not seen any change in draft or anywhere else.
Stay safe and healthy, Taetske
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There was a lady who just joined few days ago and her blog was promoting her business to people that have been financially hit due to the virus, I told her it was against policy and found her in the live chat she got really snippy with me and said she was not breaking the rules, I cannot find her now..lol. There is a lot of spam blogs going up too!
It is good to be cautious. Need to be doing proper business online or offline.
You should have made note of her name.