Rise in Cybercrime from COVID-19

The world of cybersecurity is nothing short of complex. Comprised of subtle hacking of everyday personal devices to large scale enterprise theft, the scene of cybercrime is ever evolving. To meet the challenges we all face in the fragile world of technology exploitation, security must evolve even faster. In the difficulties of COVID-19, the rise of cybercrime has been rapidly increasing. Due to the outbreak alone, cybercrime attempts increased nearly 600%. These particular attacks took the form of malicious emails where attackers would pose as representatives from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO). The emails were specifically designed to create deception among the recipients to take action such as clicking a malicious link or an attachment that contains a virus. These are known as phishing attacks, a form of social engineering that are intended to steal data including login information and credit card credentials. These particular attacks are the most prominent in the cyber landscape.

Continuing on about the vulnerabilities that the COVID-19 pandemic has created, phishing attacks are becoming increasingly popular thanks to the shift to a remote work culture. The hackers carrying out these attacks are relentless in their deployment of malicious emails towards individuals and companies alike for material gain. It's even more difficult to identify such attacks when we have all suffered a significant change in our lifestyles, relying on the internet more than ever for entertainment and work related activities. There have been some absolutely shocking statistics that emerged from the pandemic related to phishing attacks alone. Some of the most staggering included:

- 97% of users are unable to recognize a highly sophisticated phishing email.

- 95% of all attacks that targeted enterprises were due to phishing attacks.

- 3% of users report phishing emails to management.

- 85% of organizations have been victim to at least one phishing attack.

- 1 in every 8 employees share information on a phishing site.

The statistics of these attacks in 2020 alone are almost unbelievable, but are very real. Vigilance against these threats are important more than ever in this time of turmoil. Social engineering is a very difficult attack to prevent, considering it is developed to take advantage of people and their responses through the use of psychological manipulation. A sense of urgency and fear may even be stoked in order for people to make haste and sometimes irrational decisions when under such pressure. Phishing preys heavily on the human psyche and our behavior in how easily we can be convinced when we are unsuspecting of such a simple masquerading act.

As it was stated earlier, we now rely greatly more than ever on the internet to keep in contact with friends, family, and coworkers. This opens an opportunity for scammers to attack and prey on this shift. Incredibly, 42% of the US labor force is now working from home full-time. In comparison, 33% are not even employed at all. The exploits that are now available thanks to the fear created by the pandemic are vast, and that could even be an understatement. Scammers can pose as coworkers that are seen to be asking for seemingly harmless information, or emails and texts coming from potential employers. The loss of employment has been nothing short of heart breaking to a majority of Americans and people around the world, therefore creating a sense of urgency to seek out job opportunities as they come. As for the individuals that were able to work from home, communication was essential. This opened windows for phishing scams in communication between coworkers and managers that could possibly hold critical information for companies.

As disheartening as it may seem, phishing scams continuously proliferate at an alarming rate. Along with this, they are becoming more and more difficult to detect. Realizing this is extremely important so you do not become reliant on a software to detect malicious links and attachments in emails and texts. The largest difficulty in fighting social engineering attacks is that they greatly rely on human psychology and behavior. Especially during times of fear and urgency, we don't even realize we are acting irrationally until we feel the consequences of our actions. Rather than treating the solution to social engineering as software, it must be a solution of vigilance. Social engineering attacks are highly creative, similar to that of art. We must in turn take a creative approach in our offense in phishing, and the answer requires a bit of a reflection into our psychology. Some tips to combat phishing scams include:

- Being cautious about the communications you have with others and what you're receiving. If it's suspicious in any way, the first action should be to delete it immediately. You can also take an active approach to combating these attacks by forwarding the email to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov.

- Avoid clicking any links or attachments that are associated with a suspicious email. Chances are great that these attachments contain a malicious virus. If you are still unsure of the emails validity, contact the person directly if possible and confirm the communication.

- Do not enter any personal or confidential information into any kind of pop-up screen that appears to be from a legitimate company, organization, or agency. Legitimate communications will never ask for personal information via pop-up screens.

- Install some form of phishing filter for your email applications and web browsers. Keep in mind that these filters will not prevent everything, but they assist in the reduction of phishing attempts.

We are all going through a difficult time due to COVID-19, but it's extremely important to have diligence in these hard times as we continue to adjust to our circumstances. Hopefully you have been able to take away something useful from this post that can arm you with the information you need to protect yourself from malicious scammers looking to prey on the environment we are living in and beyond. Stay protected and stay safe.