Pandemic delivers extraodinary array of cybersecurity challenges

AS the Covid-19 outbreak threatens to overload the healthcare system and the global economy, it’s also having a powerful impact on the security of businesses and individuals. Cyber criminals are taking advantage of rising coronavirus concerns across the world, adapting and updating attack methods as real-time news unfolds. Cybersecurity threats have escalated, as bad actors take advantage of the pandemic. While organizations worry about newly pressing concerns — workforce well-being, finance availability, and the resiliency of operations and supply chains — cybersecurity is being overshadowed and risks are rising.

A recent study from IBM Security and Morning Consult on 2020 Consumer & Small Business COVID-19 Awareness Study highlights that since World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic on March 11, IBM X-Force has seen more than 6,000% increase in COVID- 19 related spam campaigns with lures ranging the full gamut of challenges and concerns facing individuals. From phishing emails impersonating the Small Business Administration ( SBA) and the WHO to U. S. banking institutions offering relief funds, spammers and scammers are targeting the small business owners purporting to be offering anything from stimulus relief funds to small business loan applications, in attempts to steal individuals’ information and gain access to their bank accounts.

In another report by the IBM Institute for Business Value, “COVID-19 cyberwar: How to protect your business” highlights that the coronavirus-themed spam include new threats such as virusthemed sales of malwareon the dark web — even virus- related discount codes, Covid-19-related domains which are 50 percent more likely to be maliciousthan other domains registered during the same time period and numerous phishing scams.