Cybercrime warning during virus lockdown

CYBERSECURITY experts have urged the public to be aware of online scams during the lockdown because it is likely that cybercriminals will use this as an opportunity to exploit remote workers and internet users.

KnowBe4 Africa spokesperson Anna Collard said many South Africans were already working from home and during the lockdown, cybercriminals were likely to use it to target remote workers. “Our researchers have seen an influx of coronavirus-related phishing scams.”

KnowBe4 lab researcher Eric Howes said: “The cybercriminals who weren’t running coronavirus-related phishing scams have now got in on these types of scams. With most of the global workforce now working from home, everyone needs to be extra vigilant when clicking on links and downloading attachments from emails, especially if the email is related to the coronavirus.”

Security researcher Maher Yamout from Kaspersky cybersecurity company said the region was seeing an increase in attempts to break into organisations’ systems to get control over them or access sensitive information.

IT advisory division of Mazars SA director Terence Govender said: “Cybercriminals will no doubt try to take advantage of people and businesses while they are in this vulnerable state. This is especially concerning for smaller businesses with employees working from home for the first time.”

Govender said all businesses were at risk of cyberattacks, but small and medium enterprises tended to be most vulnerable because they usually had fewer measures in place to protect their systems and data. |