How did the rates of cybercrime increase during the Corona pandemic?

The Corona pandemic has raised concerns about cyber attacks targeting hospitals, companies, food supplies, and other vital functions, and with the spread of the virus it has become a widespread dependence on home-based technologies and the wider use of online services, such as video meetings, online shopping and the use of applications; an opportunity for information hackers to exploit the crisis Humanity in launching cyber attacks.

Al-Jazeera Net was through a technology page that dealt with the issue of pirates exploiting the Corona pandemic to implement tricks and breakthroughs based on the fear of citizens and institutions of the spread of the disease, and their desire to know information related to it, and here are some of the methods that these authorities followed:

Beginning in Japan, the
first targets of the recorded hacks to use the Corona pandemic were the Japanese. Security experts at IBM-Force and Kaspersky unveiled this trick called Emotet, which is one of the notorious malware programs believed It is part of a major cyber crime operation.

"Emotate" was first discovered in 2014, and it is a Trojans program, which is considered a malicious program disguised in the form of a "safe" file such as a text document or song, and these dangerous files are attached to seemingly harmless email messages in an attempt to deceive the victims Click it and download it.

In the new Corona Virus scam, hackers warn the victim that infected patients have been reported in his city or neighborhood.

Then, the hackers urge the victims to open a "Word document" to know the city's injured, but the file contains malicious code that gives the fraudsters the power to control the victim's machine.

As a result, hackers can spy on you and access your device over the Internet, and install more dangerous malware. 

Suspicious Corona Links Growing
Al-Jazeera Net posted on a tech page last March a warning to the American "Check Point" company for cyber security of the existence of more than four thousand domains on the Internet related to the Corona virus - that is, they contain words like Corona or Covid - since the beginning of a year 2020.

The company’s report considered that 3% of these ranges are harmful, and another 5% are suspicious. 3% may not seem like a large number, but according to Check Point, this means that these corona-related domains are likely to be 50% more harmful than any other domain registered during the same time period.

The company believes that many of these malicious websites will be used in phishing campaigns, which are phishing emails, as they appear to be from a reliable source to trick the user into providing sensitive information, downloading malware, or clicking a link to a website that can do any who are they.

It is common for fraudsters to take advantage of emergencies, such as moments when people are afraid, desperate and more vulnerable, to spread fraud, the report said.

With the spread of the Corona virus worldwide, fearful computer users will likely become easy targets.

Corona Maps Pirate Traps
After several government and health agencies published maps to monitor the spread of the Corona virus, security experts discovered in mid-March that pirates were taking advantage of people around the world’s fear of the Corona virus to trick them and steal their personal data.

In his report, published by Al-Jazeera Net at the time, security researcher at Reason Labs Chai El-Fassi said that hackers use these maps to steal user information, such as their names, passwords, credit card numbers and other information stored in the browser.

Attackers design Corona virus websites, and ask users to download the app to keep them informed of the situation.

This app does not require any installation, and shows you a map of how the virus has spread. However, it is an interface for attackers to create a malicious file and install it on your computer.

Pirates target the World Health Organization
A group of pirates targeted the World Health Organization last April, as officials and cyber security experts warn that hackers from all walks of life seek to take advantage of international concerns about the spread of the Corona virus, according to a report we published on Al Jazeera Net at the time.

World Health Organization head of information security Flavio Agio said at the time that the identity of the infiltrators was not clear, but the attempts were unsuccessful. He warned that attempts at piracy against the agency and its partners had risen in conjunction with its battle to contain the Coronavirus, which has killed tens of thousands around the world.

Alexander Orbillis, a cybersecurity expert and lawyer with the New York-based Blackstone Legal Group, was the first to report to Reuters the attempted intrusion into the health organization, and is a specialist in monitoring suspicious online activities.

Orbelis said he followed the activity on March 13, when a group of hackers he was following had activated a malicious website that emulated the internal email system of the World Health Organization; and "I realized very quickly that this was a direct attack on the WHO in the pandemic."