Are businesses leaving the front door open for cyber criminals?
Andy Barratt, UK managing director of cyber security consultancy Coalfire, highlights some of the ways hackers are using Covid-19 to target businesses and how firms can protect themselves and their employees online during the crisis.
A crime of opportunity is a crime with little or no premeditation. It is committed without prior planning in the moment when the perpetrator sees a chance to act. A convenience store that staff forgot to lock up after closing, a ground floor window left open in an empty home.
Online, Covid-19 has created a plethora of open windows and unlocked doors for cyber criminals, even if sliding through them requires slightly more planning than the real-world examples mentioned above.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched a new suspicious email reporting platform in April and, within a month, members of the public had flagged more than 160,000 Covid-19-related scams via the portal.
Cyber