UK and US issue joint report about COVID-19 exploitation
The COVID-19 pandemic is being increasingly exploited by malicious cyber actors and advice has this week been issued by both the UK and the US.
A report, jointly published by the NCSC and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), provides information on exploitation by cyber criminals and advanced persistent threat (APT) groups of COVID-19. It also includes a list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) for detection as well as mitigation advice.
The data suggests that cyber crime has now increased, but both the NCSC and CISA have seen an increase in the user of COVID-19 related themes. The threat of cyber crime has also increased due to an increase in home working which has led to the use of more vulnerable services such Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Individuals, small businesses and large organisations are at risk of COVID-19 scams and phishing messages, but the advisory offers some practical advice about how to protect you and your business from these types of attack.
You can read the full advisory here
Duncan is a technology professional with over 20 years experience of working in various IT roles. He has a interest in cyber security, and has a wide range of other skills in radio, electronics and telecommunications.