FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Gabriela Ramirez, Communication Manager
Integris is warning businesses of a disturbing new trend in cyber threats: Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the chaos and misinformation surrounding the coronavirus to send phishing emails, malware infected links, and phony shopping sites to businesses across the nation.
Mike Fowler, CEO of Integris, warns businesses and their employees, “Scammers will use events like COVID-19 as opportunities to trick users into providing credentials or downloading malicious software. We must always be skeptical of emails that come from outside our organization and simply expect that they are scams.”
Mike goes on to caution, “Another risk point, with so many working from home during this outbreak, is that their remote access into systems is secure. The problem is that it is easy and cheaper to provide remote access without having the proper security in place. The bad guys are constantly scanning for open and unsecured remote access port. We always recommend using a properly maintained and secured business laptop to connect to your corporate network.”
The CISA and FBI have issued warnings regarding coronavirus-related scams, cautioning people against opening emails received from government organizations such as WHO, NIH or the CDC.
Integris recommends reminding your employees that these organizations will never send unsolicited email or require login information to access their official sites. In addition, Integris has noted an increase in “too good to be true” scams including cures and vaccines for the coronavirus as well as false “interdepartmental” emails alleging updates to coronavirus procedures. Remote workers are being targeted now because of their isolation from the office and the temptation to lower their cybersecurity standards.
Mike Fowler strongly recommends your employees use work-issued equipment with protections in place. “If you do use your own home PC to connect to your corporate network it needs to have the latest security patches and endpoint protection, or the bad guys can use your computer to access the corporate data. Home users won’t have nearly the security tools in place that the corporate office does. Please be hyper-vigilant when working from home.”
For more information and valuable resources about protecting your network from coronavirus-driven cybersecurity threats, contact one of Integris’s locations at iconicit.com.
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