Cybercrimes in the time of Covid-19: Scamsters taking advantage of pandemic
The
entire world is currently worried about containing Covid-19. But at the same time,
there is an entire ecosystem that is riding piggyback on this pandemic to carry
out financial frauds. And these start right from creating a fake PM CARES link
for donations, equated monthly instalment (EMI) moratorium frauds, and malware
in real-time apps that provide details of Covid-19 patients near you.
Tragically, people are falling for these because of the overall fear. For
example, a 46-year-old lost more than Rs 1 lakh after downloading a real-time
neighbour-hood patient detection app.
Murali
Urs, country manager, India of Barracuda Networks, says: “As much of the world
grapples with Covid-19, attackers are taking advan-tage of the widespread
discussion in emails and across the web.”
Mobile apps: Currently,
there are many virus-related apps, which are actually malware asking for
various permissions and inadvertently gain access. Raman Singh, co-founder and
CRO, CloudConnect Communications, says: “The department of telecommunications
recently announced a list of websites around Covid-19 with high malicious
content, including fake maps showing infected users. These require the users to
download software for generating counterfeit maps, making it a security
concern.” In short, beware of what you download, and more importantly, the
permission you give.
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