Why you need to be cyber safe during COVID-19?

The world is in chaos right now, businesses have been affected by the coronavirus situation and cyber attacks like scams, malware, and phishing attacks have substantially increased because cybercriminals see this as an opportunity to implement Covid-19 related cyber attacks to exploit everyone.

Cybercriminals are using their common methods of actions to take advantage of this fearful and uncertain time of crisis like phishing emails and fake messages relating to miracle cures for coronavirus or protective equipment, elicit payments, and fake charges and services, or attempts to obtain login credentials and personal information. And also cyber crimes against companies are growing in number and getting dangerous every single day.

Newly adopted work from home culture

Most of the companies are now operating by employees working from their homes without any shadow of the IT department and its cybersecurity and most of these organizations are not prepared for a sudden shift to remote work. And even students are continuing their studies with school in online mode. But without any cybersecurity protocols or precautions, data worth millions is in danger. The end-users are in the front line in the battle of cybersecurity and educating ourselves on this can help us win this war.

Cybercriminals are settling up thousands of fake COVID-19 themed websites under newly-registered domain names to spread malware and run scams. Even if these websites are taken down immediately, they can make new websites in no time to spread fake news and disinformation. Because of these situations, cybersecurity and security teams of companies are so overburdened and understaffed.

Businesses around the world are vulnerable at this moment and are more willing to pay the ransom to the hackers during ransomware attacks. Healthcare providers have also been targets of cyberattacks in the past but now that the healthcare industry is overworked and tired, phishing and social engineering attacks are more likely to succeed at this time.

How can we help you?

Organizations invest in anti-virus programs, firewalls, and endless resources to avoid cyber attacks. It was demonstrated that these resources were the weakest link while preventing or removing an attack. An attack can occur anytime through outdated firewalls, anti-virus software, and data breach within the organization. But with our Security Operations Centre (SOC) that works 24*7/365, you get supreme threat detection and incident response. Since cybercriminals don’t spare smaller organizations, they also need cybersecurity which we can provide for an affordable price with our SOC in a Box. For a more in-depth understanding of our SOC, please visit www.dicuae.com/soc or contact us via +971 4 2415888 or info@dicuae.com

How to Avoid Cyberattacks for Work-From-Home Employees

While the world is focused on the threat posed by Covid-19, cybercriminals across the globe are using this time of crisis for their own benefit by launching their own kind of “virus”. With the lockdown, more and more employees are forced to work from home without the facility of on-site IT crew. This has led many companies and their employees vulnerable to cyber attacks.

For instance, recently in Britain, hackers have launched a wave of cyber-attacks to exploit the people who are working from home. The percentage of malicious email traffic before the UK’s lockdown began was 12% but after 6 weeks it is more than 60%. These cyberattacks are now more sophisticated and are especially focused on coronavirus related anxieties rather than the usual attempts at financial frauds and extortion.

At the beginning of May, Darktrace found “a large malicious email campaign” against UK businesses that told employees working from home that they could choose to be furloughed if sign-in on a particular website. There are also reports of attacks that have targeted tools that are used by employees who are working from home. For example, fake requests to reset VPN accounts (a virtual private network) and zoom video conferencing accounts with the faked sign-in pages.

There is also an increase in spoofing attacks with emails disguised as an email from a colleague. Darktrace said that one-fifth of malicious emails will normally use some form of spoofing but this rate has reached 60%. There was one spoofing attack in which there was an unnamed company chief executive asking workers to donate to his health charity, and there were also many cases of fake IT support departments asking workers to download new software.

As long as lockdown continues, secure payments and billing procedures will be hard to achieve. Since employees working from home are not trained on data privacy protocols, they can risk exposing sensitive information to data breaches. But steps can be taken by the company and its employees to prepare for these malicious activities and decrease these cyberattacks.

Steps to ensure a secure work from home environment

1. Update the security network Making sure that your devices are up to date with security patches and upgrades can make a huge difference in preventing any cyberattack.
   

2. Remind employees to be cautious about phishing emails Be on a lookout for attractive emails that are provoking you to open them or any other emails that are looking suspicious to you about any offers related to coronavirus.
   

3. Use a secure internet connection Make sure that you only use a secure wifi network, your wifi should be password protected. If you are going to use a public network verify from the owner whether it is their official network or not only use verified and password protected wifi connections.
   

4. Employers should reinforce data safety While working from home, employers should make sure that employees maintain their professionalism and do not use their personal email accounts in an official capacity.

If you are an organization and in need of 24x7 security of your network infrastructure (in affordable prices, we must add), then we encourage you to contact us for the same via +971 4 2415888 or info@dicuae.com. Please feel free to visit our website to know more about our services.

Terrifying Facts about Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware or a virus that prevents users from accessing their systems or data until they pay a sum of money.

Clicking on vulnerable links is still a dominant way to deliver their payloads to cybercriminals. Ransomware was the greatest threat of malware in 2018, with multiple high-profile attacks on ransomware. Such malicious threats did not display any signs of slowing down in 2019.

Only through a proactive disaster recovery plan can your chance of avoiding a ransomware attack improve.

Let’s look at the infographic below from MalwareFox.

For ransomware help and removal, contact Digital Insights at +971 4 2415888 /+971 50 8865252 or email us info@dicuae.com

Visit our website to learn more: www.dicuae.com