Everybody should be on the look out for bad actors using internet trickery to infiltrate your privacy, steal your identity and wreak havoc on your hard drive. The world of cybercrime is now, more than ever, a threat to anyone with a device in hand.
Nexus IT Consultants CEO Earl Foote says hackers are looking for ways to exploit the fear and anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He says they’re seeing an uptick in phishing campaigns.
“Spear phishing is just a more targeted email type of campaign to get people either to click on nefarious links that can infect them and provide a backdoor into systems or get people to give up and provide sensitive information that can be used to compromise that person's financial accounts or to blackmail them."
He says be careful clicking on things sent through email, even if the sender is familiar. While using devices of any kind, watch for ads and links that are unfamiliar.
“Over the last several weeks we've seen a lot of people forwarding emails to us that look quite legitimate from financial institutions or supposedly from government institutions asking for people to click on a link, to update their information, or click here so that you can get the funds that the federal government has allocated for the new Cares Act. "
Foote says businesses are getting hit hard with erroneous emails and ads in recent weeks since many businesses have shuttered, and owners are trying to find a way to make ends meet.
“These new business loans. The FDA Crisis Relief Loan and the Cares Payment Protection Program Loan, and we're seeing that actors utilizing these things to flood peoples email boxes and get them to click on things or give information about accounts.”
Be aware of emails coming from your bank. Don’t click on links and then enter username or password information unless you initiate the contact. Foote says a new scam is surfacing on home routers now.
“We’re also seeing there’s a new router vulnerability for some consumer grade, home grade, wireless routers that actually redirect people to a covid-19 website that looks like a legitimate type of website or alert, and gets them to enter sensitive personal and financial details so that the hacker can compromise that information and then steal from the people.”
Foote says users should be hyper vigilant about clicking on links that are sent to them. He says people get a little numb to the warnings.
We’ve seen studies as recently as the last year that show that as much as 14 or 15% of people that receives these types of nefarious emails or links in their browsers will click on it and will give up information that they should not.”
Foote says sometimes clicking on a phishing link can infect your computer hard drive, so he suggests going into your malware or anti-virus software and turn it off, update it and then run it, which he says should clear the system.
Phone scams frequently target older people and Foote says any calls asking to give account information, should be denied. If a bank calls about fraudulent activity on an account, hang up, go to a verified website or initiate your own phone contact. Above all, don’t be one of those 15% who are victims of identity theft.
