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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