The Internet was already a part of our life and the lockdown period due to the COVID-19 pandemic promoted it to our basic needs. It has revolutionized the way of communication, learning, entertainment, gaming, commerce, and many more. Whatever comes to your mind, you first search it on the Internet. You used to refresh Cricinfo and Livescore for the updates of your favorite team but now refresh Worldometers for the updates of unfavorite coronavirus. You used to be seen in front of the tea shop playing Ludo and Carrom board but these days, you are online doing the same. You also may be cooking something new following the food recipes online, despite ending with Pakauda like Momos and brown Rasbari; in any way, you are making your friends jealous. You may also have done the virtual tour of ancient Rome and Newyork’s MoMA or watched birds on eBird or colored the canvas with Bob Ross or may have shown your creativity in the garden or cleaned your house or prepared the itinerary for travel after the lockdown.
Netflix and Zoom are new fashion; the Professor got a new definition, Tokyo is no more just a city. Your activities and emotions are widening; you are staying in a small perimeter but your heart is feeling the world; You cry at the miracle happened in the Turkish jail; you laugh with Friends; you screamed over the course of roller-coaster seasons of Breaking Bad, or you travel to the fantasy world of GOT. Online teaching is becoming the norm and teachers may be inviting you to Zoom. The Internet has really changed your style of spending lockdown time. Despite that fancy time passes, you become speechless with the frontline people working to control the pandemic and feel lucky for being able to stay at home doing whatever indoor things you want.
These unprecedented dependencies on the cyber world have created limitless vulnerabilities and most of the users are not much concerned about it.
A few days back, a link mentioning free ‘Netflix Account’ spread over the Facebook messenger, you may have clicked on that link too, went a few levels deep, yet got nothing; not only general people, some IT guys also did the same. What this example suggests is that with growth in the Internet traffic and people spending most of their time on the Internet has made cyberspace more vulnerable. Criminals are finding new creative ideas to get people in their trap and created a major problem for individuals, businesses, and other entities. Many people are becoming victims of hacking, identity theft, malicious software, hate crimes, telemarketing & Internet fraud, phishing, sniffing, harassing in social media, bombarding the emails, fake profile & updates, etc. That free Netflix was also a criminal’s trick to break into phones and steal sensitive data, also called phishing; the phishers stay active and attack the users with various money-making schemes and such activities skyrocketed during the lockdown. If Netflix is providing free service, why didn’t they announce it through their own official channels? The users are trapped in the criminal’s fake offers knowingly and mostly unknowingly. Cases of vishing are also being heard, which is phishing through voice calls. Criminals are even trying an approach of social engineering and making direct contact with intended victim(s) using emails, social sites, or Viber or phones. They try to convince, gain confidence, and retrieve the information they need. The speed, convenience, and anonymity of the Internet are being misused.
Not just phishing, our social media apps are full of fake news and hate speech spread about coronavirus. Rumors are being spread about various medicines for treating coronavirus or sending messages which may hurt communal sentiments. The lockdown situation increased the number of people working from home creating more opportunities for criminals to spread malware, including spyware and ransomware. As the home user may be logging into the corporate network of their office via their unsecured home network, the vulnerability has increased. Spyware is unwanted software that gains access to your computing device, stealing your internet usage data and sensitive information and ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts a victim’s files and only releases them after money is paid to it through some online channels.
Similarly, Fake baits scammers are creating ways to trap users. They pretend to be WHO or any other health agencies and ask for donations, mostly through emails, they transfer the users to the fake site with authentic-looking contents but if anyone initiates donations entering their financial credentials those data will reach the criminals. I read the news a few days back, an email pretending to be from Vietnam asked for donations for WHO in a bitcoin wallet. But actually WHO does not use a bitcoin wallet. Internet users need to be very much careful of such scams and never enter sensitive data.
We have recently seen the data breaches of Foodmandu and Vianet in Nepal too, where data of thousands of customers got exposed. Hackers are attempting to hack WHO and it’s partner’s computer systems. Those criminals may be looking for sensitive information about coronavirus and trying to encrypt and hold it for ransom, or they may just want to disrupt the system. About a month back a hospital in the Czech Republic suffered a cyber-attack, which disrupted their functioning and even caused postponements of scheduled surgeries, which had a direct impact on human life. Likewise, a hacker published the personal data of former patients from the UK’s one of the Medicine research centers. A hospital in France was also the target of a failed attack. A similar incident happened in Spain as well, and health workers were informed to avoid opening suspicious emails. Knowing about scams, malware and more, you may now be feeling like the Internet as a dangerous place, but don’t worry; simple security measures can heavily reduce the exposure to such threats.
- Malicious cyber attackers are using people’s high appetite for COVID-19 related information as an opportunity to deliver malware. You must remain vigilant and don’t trust anything you see on the Internet. Ignore spam emails, “Free” offers, clickbait, online quizzes, surveys, unless you received it from the known sources.
- If you are using the same password for all your online accounts, it’s time to keep them different and strong – use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols – and keep this secret to yourself.
- Use the privacy settings of social media. Do not click and share anything you see and don’t believe everyone you meet on social media. Keep your personal information professional and limited; properly manage what to show and what to hide.
- The Internet is an excellent source of information but not always. Before trusting the news, verify the trustworthiness of the source. Fact check whether the stories and photos are real; text search & reverse image search helps most of the time. Do not share the news stories and photos as you see them. Follow WHO or your government’s source for COVID-19 information.
- Once you post on the Internet it remains forever in various forms even if you delete the original post. Any comment or image you post online may stay forever. There is no way for you to “take back” a remark you wish you hadn’t made, so think twice before posting.
- Don’t befriend whoever you meet in the virtual space. People you meet online are not always who they claim to be.
- The lockdown period has seen the increment in online transactions. Before performing the transaction, be sure you are accessing the bank’s genuine website. Always type the bank’s address instead of clicking on a link in an email. Look at your address bar and ensure the website’s address starts with “https”. The ‘s’, which may also be denoted with a padlock in most browsers, indicates a secure connection. Sign out from your bank account as soon as you’re finished. The bank will never ask for your financial credentials so if you got the message asking such, never respond. Don’t give access to your mobile to anyone as most of the banking transactions these days send OTP as an SMS that is required for the transaction to complete.
- Never believe in emails that threaten to close or suspend the account if immediate actions are not taken and they want the user to provide their personal details. Banks never send such messages.
- Do not perform sensitive financial transactions using open Public Wi-Fi. Cybercriminals may intercept information being sent between your device and a website.
- Download computer and mobile apps from official app stores only. Read the reviews and ratings. Don’t download apps that look suspicious or come from a site you don’t trust. Malware these days are seen in the form of the COVID-19 information app which is actually not.
- Mobile, as well as computer operating systems, provide timely updates to resolve newly evolved security vulnerabilities and threats – Update the OS.
- Protect your computer with genuine antivirus and anti-spyware software, and set these to automatically update. Do a little research while choosing one.
- Enable the firewall on your OS that will block unauthorized access while permitting outward communication.
Self-awareness of the citizens is the most effective way of decreasing crimes in cyberspace. Stay updated with the security threats being evolved, do not fear, respect the threats and apply the proper security measures. The law enforcement agency of the country should also alert the citizens about threats and respond promptly in the case of any occurrence.
Stay safe and enjoy the lockdown responsively.
SAROJ PANDEY / @coolsky_
