New types of hacking detected during pandemic: IT specialist

The National Business

MANY cyber hackers are taking advantage of the Covid-19 situation with new types of hacking detected, says Deloitte PNG IT specialist Cimas Alberto.
He said some of these attacks include:
lNEW and very effective type of spam (ransomware) attacks:
“For example, in Australia, we have seen an e-mail sent to millions of people, asking them to click certain internet link where they can check when they need to go to the nearest hospital to receive the vaccination against the Covid-19.
“Obviously, if you click that link, a ransomware will automatically get installed in your computer or mobile phone, and the hacker will basically hijack that device.
“Later, the hacker can use that device as a bot, steal your data, or simply ask for ransom if you want to recover it.
“This is not the only example, there are many well-crafted and convincing e-mails being sent by hackers out there.

  • FAKE online sale of critical equipment: Such as masks, protective gear, medical equipment and other type of medical products used to fight against the Covid-19. Basically, when you purchase these products online, after you pay, you simply receive nothing.
    “You purchased it in a fake online shop set up by a hacker and the hacker simply stole your money;
  • FAKE discount coupons: Now that many people stay at home, hackers are sending “fake” discount coupons for popular online products or services, which are in high demand.
    “If you want to receive these coupons, you simply need to register in a website or fill a template.
    “Obviously, all that is fake and set up by a hacker.
    “Consequences of filling that template or registering can be very different (money stolen, personal data stolen and sold in the dark web, ransomware attack, etc).
  • CRITICAL security holes being exploited in popular tele-conference and tele-communications tools: A very famous case is ZOOM.
    “As you know, when Covid-19 restrictions started, this application went from being completely unknown to become extremely popular. Hackers found a lot of security holes that allowed them to hijack videoconferences, listen to confidential conversations and even hack computers via ZOOM.
    “ZOOM was not the only case, other popular applications were affected such as Chrome, Firefox, IE, GoToMeeting and others; and,
  • PHYSICAL IT infrastructure is unattended: Due to Covid restrictions. IT teams of big and small companies now work from home.
    This alloweed hackers to perpetrate physical attacks on critical IT infrastructure.