THERE has been a massive increase in local businesses falling victim to cyber crime since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Dr Clare Ryan, CEO of Letterkenny based firm, ITUS Secure Technologies, said they have seen a 35 per cent increase in the number of incidents they have responded to since the start of the outbreak.
“This is reflective of the global issues many businesses are experiencing at the minute. One of the first things to increase was spam with Covid-19 in the subject line. There are 150,000 new spam emails being set up every day with Covid-19 in the subject line.”
Targeting people through email is one of the easiest ways as more people are seeking information about the virus and not necessarily through the channels they normally would. Dr Ryan said the public now often cross reference information they read and search in areas where they normally would not be and cyber criminals are taking advantage of this. Some businesses that have fallen victim to attacks include accounting and solicitors firms who opened up their IT infrastructure in order to facilitate home working, but it was not done securely.
There has also been an increase in Ransomware with criminals demanding money by telling their victims they have photos of them using their webcam. With people using video calling more frequently this has become more common.
“People are signing up for training courses without having done due diligence and their emails are being harvested and sold on,” said Dr Ryan.
“One company had their email blacklisted because an employee used a corporate email to sign up. It was picked up as being a blacklisted site and the company had to stop trading for a day.”
There has also been an increase in the amount of invoice fraud taking place. This involves invoices being intercepted by criminals who change the bank details so customers pay them instead of the company. Providing some advice to businesses Dr Ryan said security should still be to the forefront of your business even when staff are homeworking. She said home computers and laptops should have the same level of protection as in the office. Dr Ryan also warned about the use of video conferencing technology and said companies should not be disclosing personal information or bank details during calls unless there is added protection in place to make it secure.
Another danger is cloned or hacked websites. She advised people not to open links sent within emails and to instead type in the website address in your browser and never open a link. The new Business Continuity Voucher from Donegal Local Enterprise Office can also be used to avail of IT services and there is also a lot of free advice available.
“The last thing you want is to be kicked when you are down during Covid-19 with a cyber attack. It can be financially crippling if you have an incident,” said Dr Ryan.
“If you feel you have been a victim and it hasn’t involved the transfer of money then ring a local IT provider and have it dealt with professionally. If there has been money transferred ring the bank and stop the transfer and then contact an IT professional. Even if you simply clicked on something but it is not sitting right with you contact an IT professional because the damage could have been done without you knowing.”
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