COVID-19 Clicks \u2013 How Phishing Capitalized on a Global Pandemic<\/a> report was created, shining a light on what people know about phishing attacks, what makes them click on a potentially malicious link, and overall cybersecurity and cyber-resilience habits in the time of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt was revealed that three in 10 workers worldwide have clicked a phishing link in the past year \u2013 and in the US., that jumps to one in three. The massive increase in remote work due to COVID-19 has come with an explosion in cybercriminal activity like phishing, and the sophistication and frequency of that threat continues to rise. The idea of a malicious email isn\u2019t new \u2013 in fact, one in four Americans say they\u2019ve received a phishing email related to the pandemic. So why are people still clicking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Dr Prashanth Rajivan, an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, what we need to consider is that human beings aren\u2019t necessarily good at dealing with uncertainty, which is part of why cybercriminals capitalize on upheaval (such as a global pandemic) to launch attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCybercrime is a crime of opportunity, and that opportunity is abundant right now because of the constant connectivity work-from-home environments create,\u201d said Webroot Security Analyst, Tyler Moffitt. \u201cCOVID-19 themed phishing lures have surged this year with some even claiming to know the location of infected individuals in your city, which also promotes disinformation. With cybercriminals strategically targeting the vulnerability surrounding the pandemic, it\u2019s never been more critical to prioritize cyber-resilience and realize it\u2019s everyone\u2019s responsibility to protect their digital data just as they would their physical health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the report, Dr Rajivan offers his perspective on how the COVID-19 pandemic and general increase in working from home could affect individuals\u2019 and businesses\u2019 cybersecurity status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLike with distracted driving, working while doing other household chores or even watching TV seems easy enough when doing mundane tasks, such as email processing,\u201d says Rajivan. He notes this type of distraction can make people vulnerable and even less likely to notice or weigh the potential phishing message\u2019s risks properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBusiness is a collective of individuals striving toward a common goal. If the collective\u2019s goals are aligned, then a business is more likely to succeed in achieving them. Being physically in the same space can go a long way to support the collective path. In contrast, \u201cindividuals who perceive themselves to be responsible only for themselves and no one else tend to take greater risks,\u201d says Dr Rajivan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While risk taking certainly has its place in business, it\u2019s not something you want employees to build into their cybersecurity habits. Building out a plan to keep your business cyber resilient involves getting employees on board and implementing the right tools behind the scenes, like regular security awareness training and backup to help bounce back quickly in the event of a breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together, preparedness and awareness will go a long way to mitigate business risk. While work-from-home does help keep us physically safe from COVID-19, an investment in educating employees and building a plan for cyber-resilience ensures you don\u2019t get stuck with a virus (or worse) of a different kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyler Moffitt, Webroot\u2019s Security Analyst, explains how technology leaders can ensure the work practices of their colleagues do not put their company\u2019s cybersecurity at risk. Among numerous other life adjustments, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a flurry of fresh security risks as employees settle into more permanent work-from-home environments. Employees now assume the role of IT professional for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":1876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17,512,43,514],"tags":[88,1049,1048,1046,1047],"class_list":["post-1875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-enterprise-security","category-main-story-newsletter","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-clicks-how-phishing-capitalized-on-a-global-pandemic","tag-cyber-resilience","tag-tyler-moffitt","tag-webroot"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1936,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875\/revisions\/1936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}