CYBER Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, almost the entire world is working from home to avoid traveling and maintain physical distancing. Over the last month, tech giants like Microsoft and Google, prominent -security firms, and law enforcement agencies of the government like the FBI have raised an alarm on the massive increase in -attacks across the globe. With remote working platforms gaining sudden and universal attention, the swift increase of malicious attacks isn’t surprising at all.
ZOOM VIDEO-CONFERENCING APP
Due to the nation-wide lockdown in India, several educational institutes are using social media platforms to encourage online education and teach via e-learning means. One such app used by many teachers to connect with a large number of students at a time is Zoom. As the daily users of Zoom surged from 10 million to 200 million within a few weeks, this app is extremely easy to use. According to John Shier, the senior security advisor of a UK-based IT security firm Sophos, easy to use platforms generally trade-off with the privacy and security of users. CYBER Thus uninvited guests disrupted meetings and created ‘Zoom bombing’.
As one of the preventive measures, CYBER Zoom has introduced waiting rooms and passwords to join meetings as a standard feature.
TRADITIONAL SECURITY SOLUTIONS
Companies are already struggling with their pre-existing security systems trying to update those using VPNs which are simply blowing up VPNs with traffic. Also, the majority of the companies still use firewalls and conventional anti-virus software though newer cloud-based solutions offer better security.
Vulnerabilities of remote working platforms are only a part of the bigger issue of cybercrime as Google has blocked more than 18 million phishing emails and malware within just 7 days.
FRAUD EMAILS
With different sectors being targeted CYBER by fraud emails, healthcare has been the most hit as emails regarding PPEs and hand rubs are being circulated by scammers to make people click on malicious links. Next are the finance and banking sectors. According to Mr. Venkat Krishnapur, vice-president of engineering and MD at McAfee India, “Governments all over the world have announced various relief packages for their citizens, and scammers now routinely send emails pretending to be government agencies asking for bank account details to deposit money.”
The next attacked sector is education. Students accessing e-learning to study as all educational institutes are closed, malicious emails can are custom made for them to click on. However schools around the globe have updated cybersecurity protocols in a hurry to offer e-learning to students.
Several other sectors are affected by surging cybercrimes that have caused a demand in cybersecurity experts.
HIGHER DEMANDS FOR CYBER-SECURITY TALENTS
The sudden increase in Cybercrimes has caused a surge in demand for cyber-security experts with organizations willing to pay 10-20% higher salaries though their payments were already high in the pre-corona days. The overall demand for experts in cybersecurity has also increased from 13% to 20% according to the head of the specialized staffing at TeamLease Digital.
