Got a mail from WHO? That could be a hacker at work

Received an email from an unknown source on Covid-19? Beware! It could be a hacker trying to enter your system.

While people are busy protecting themselves from the coronavirus, cyber criminals are unleashing viruses to intrude into computers, laptops and mobiles, cashing in on the pandemic.

With lakhs of people working from home (WFH) — where IT security tends to be more compromised than at workplaces — cyber prowlers scout for the right opportunity to breach firewalls to steal valuable data as well as money from bank accounts.

Real-world telemetry data from K7 Labs of the Chennai-based K7 Computing reveal that from February 2 to March 25, there was a 30 per cent increase in cyber-attacks with 1,756 blocked malicious instances using the Covid-19 theme. Between March 23 and April 9, the average daily number of blocked events increased by about 260 per cent, said J Kesavardhanan, founder and CEO of K7 Computing.