Covid-19 "Coronavirus” & the Rise of Cyber Security Threats

The risks caused by the novel Covid-19 also known as "coronavirus" are climbing past beyond public health or economic crisis. This novel virus threatens not only our health but also our digital life. Hackers and cyber criminals are trying tirelessly to commit more malicious activities on digital systems and networks. Internet security threats like phishing scams, spam, ransom-ware, viruses & worms are increasing as online hackers take the advantage of pandemics such as COVID-19 emergency which has an impact on the security and privacy of people and organizations.

Cyber security experts warn of a high frequency and severity of cyber-attacks in this period. Experts say hackers are taking advantage of the world's attention on Covid-19 to find new victims. Those attacks range from simple online attacks to steal or leak information to more sophisticated ones aiming to get financial gains. Attackers have recently send thousands of spam e-mails to collect unrealistic donations to aid the victims of COVID-19 Coronavirus. Additionally, according to world’s famous news agency Reuters; one of the prominent attacks that have taken place during Covid-19 emergency was an online phishing attack where cybercriminals have tried to break into the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this month. The cybercriminals have installed a Phishing (Fake) website posing as an email login portal for World Health Organization (WHO) staff in order to steal login Credentials (Usernames and Passwords). However, WHO CIO Fla’avio Ageo have announced that even though the attackers have tried variety of tools and services to achieve their goal; the effort was unsuccessful.

Other major health care organization that have also suffered a hit of cyber-attacks is the US Department of Health and Social Science and a health care facility which is responsible for processing coronavirus tests in the Czech Republic. The motive behind cyber-attacks on health care units could be either gaining information about tests or vaccines or getting ransoms from health care units in order to recover control over critical services and systems vital in the fight against the virus at this critical time.