the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, hackers continue to send COVID-19-related messages to deliver malware or steal credentials and other sensitive information. In an attempt to counter these threats, the US Department of Justice recently seized five domains that impersonated biotech companies involved in vaccine development. These domains collected personal data on visitors for use in future cyber attacks. Organizations and individuals are advised to remain vigilant and report incidents to the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC).
According to Palo Alto’s research team, Unit 42, vaccine-related phishing attacks rose by 530 percent from December 2020 to February 2021, and phishing attacks relating to or targeting pharmacies and hospitals rose by 189 percent during that same timeframe. Cybercriminals will most likely continue to target every sector, both public and private, capitalizing on pandemic concerns in various cyberattacks.
The NJCCIC encourages users to educate themselves and others on these continuing threats and tactics employed by threat actors in order to reduce victimization. Users are advised to look for signs of spoofing , refrain from clicking on links and attachments from unknown or unverified senders, confirm the legitimacy of a request via an alternate means of communication before taking action, navigate directly to official websites, and exercise caution when divulging sensitive information. Additional resources can be found on the NJCCIC COVID-19 Cybersecurity Resources webpage.
