“Coronavirus Sets the Stage for Hacking Mayhem”
WIRED, March 19, 2020
Security
By Lily Hay Newman
“As more people work from home and anxiety mounts, expect cyberattacks of all sorts to take advantage.”
The novel coronavirus has impacted the global economy, daily life, and human health around the world, changing how people work and interact everyday. But in addition to the pressing threat the virus poses to human health, these rapid changes have also created an environment in which hackers, scammers, and spammers all thrive.
Coronavirus phishing scams started circulating in January, preying on fear and confusion about the virus—and they’ve only proliferated since. Last week, Brno University Hospital in the Czech Republic—a major Covid-19 testing hub—suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted operations and caused surgery postponements. And even sophisticated nation state hackers have been using pandemic-related traps to spread their malware. The conditions are ripe for cyberattacks of all sorts.
About the Author:
Lily Hay Newman is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, digital privacy, and hacking. She previously worked as a technology reporter at Slate magazine and was the staff writer for Future Tense, a publication and project of Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University. Additionally her work has appeared in Gizmodo, Fast Company, IEEE Spectrum, and Popular Mechanics. She lives in New York City.
See also:
- The Covid-19 Pandemic Reveals Ransomware’s Long Game
- Google Sees State-Sponsored Hackers Ramping Up Coronavirus Attacks
- The US Says Chinese Hackers Went Too Far During the Covid-19 Crisis
- The Nigerian Fraudsters Ripping Off the Unemployment System
