Fraud Prevention due
to COVID 19
Using people's concern to learn
about the pandemic, cybercriminals take advantage to carry out their misdeeds. We
must worry about how to prevent fraud and data loss due
to Covid-19. In this way we will be better prepared not to
fall into their networks. On this occasion we summarize a series of advice
aimed especially at older adults, provided in the Update yourself.
The first thing to say is that
"you should never provide card, bank, social security or other personal
information." Equally it is necessary to emphasize that “verify the
sender email address of the message and the link to which the message is sent”.
These
warnings about the access of cybercriminals to confidential information of
companies and their data bases, through fraudulent emails
with the Coronavirus hook, have already been in Spain for some time. There
are many warnings, advice and alerts issued by state security agencies, which
repeat it daily.
In other parts of the
world it is the same, the Boston Consulting Group - BCG, and the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics, provide an analysis and estimate. "Teleworking
in the midst of Covid-19 could be a work tool used by up to 300 million
employees around the world."
Data loss Prevention
& recovery due
to Covid-19:
There is no doubt that
these attacks by cybercriminals represent a risk for teleworking and for the
loss of business data. The attacks are targeting payment systems, confidential
personal data, and bank accounts. Also, and most importantly, they are aimed at
the theft, damage or loss of company databases, which can represent the very
life of the organization. In these cases, precautions must be extreme, since
any loss of data, or loss of database, will require the necessary rapid data
recovery.
Recommendations for older adults:
BBVA advises caution,
especially on the part of older adults who have to do banking operations from
home online. Here we summarize his advice:
- Do not
give information on cards, banks, social security, medical and personal information.
- Be
suspicious of offers and advertisements that seem too good.
- Do not
download links or download files from questionable senders or WhatsApp chains.
- Protect
devices with strong and different passwords for each service.
- Use password managers: they are a comfortable and reliable way to have them stored.
Measures to alert the loss of data:
The Ibero-American Social
Security organization suggests a series of measures to alert users of falling
into attacks from cybercriminals. We add here that they are also measures
to alert the loss of data.
We say this because any
malicious file leakage, in addition to stealing keys and personal data, can
also cause companies to lose valuable data. Here's a summary of those
tips:
- Stay
informed from official and reliable sources, never through links or e-mail.
- Check the sender email
address of the message and the send link.
- Be
careful with requests for personal data. Better go directly to the web.
- Be
suspicious of messages with misspellings, grammatical errors and generic
greetings.
- Be
suspicious when the message urges you to take any kind of action urgently.
- Keep calm and reflect before acting or making hasty decisions.
Measures to
protect your e-mail from attacks:
Next, the same previous
organization, advises some measures to protect your e-mail from
attacks by cybercriminals:
-
Verify
the sender of the emails, and if there are doubts, confirm through another
channel, such as mobile.
-
Check
the address a link is heading to before clicking it.
-
Be
alert to urgent requirements,
-
Do
not download attachments, or click on unexpected links, or insecure from the
source.
-
Keep
all devices and applications updated.
-
Remember
that any carelessness can lead to loss of money, or loss of data, which will
then require the use of data recovery techniques
or Data Loss Prevention
Techniques.
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