3aIT Blog

phishingAs if we didn't have enough to worry about at the moment, criminals are now using the panic surrounding the global Covid-19 pandemic as a hook to try and get people to follow links and / or run software that will compromise their machines.

Would-be attackers love significant global events, as it provides a universal point of reference when trying to engineer a scam. This coronavirus is an absolute jackpot for them. Not only does the scale of it mean that everyone is aware of it, it has also led to many people working in unfamiliar circumstances. The ideal time to strike is when people's guard is down. People will be receiving all sorts of out-of-the-ordinary emails at the moment, and company processes may be being rewritten daily in order to deal with the unique situation we find ourselves in.

Therefore, it's now more important than ever to be vigilant when dealing with emails. Never be too embarrased to question an email you've been sent, whether that's by opening a new email / phoning the sender to ask if they sent the email you're looking at, or forwarding on a possibly dodgy email to your IT company to check whether it's genuine. The fallout from clicking a dodgy link or attachment can be massive at the best of times. With IT companies locked down at home along with everyone else, fixing the sorts of problems this can result in could be very difficult or even impossible remotely.

For more details on the sorts of scams seen so far, have a look at this article on the Which website.