Hacking Your Brain with Coronavirus
Category
Awareness, News, Social Engineering
Risk Level
You may remember the spam emails of the early 2000’s. They usually came from a Nigerian prince promising you riches if you just sent him your bank account information. Of course, it was a scam and your bank account would be emptied. Once we heard about it, everyone laughed at how ridiculous it was.
“Yeah, who falls for that kind of thing anymore?”
Truthfully, a LOT of people still do. While the Nigerian prince isn’t around anymore, spam has become more targeted since then, and we now call them “phishing emails.” Phishing emails are different because they are highly effective. Rather than just sending out random emails, hackers use your psychology against you to elicit a reaction that ultimately causes you to let your guard down. That means success for them, and big problems for you.
“Really? I don’t think that’d happen to me”
Some of the human emotions that hackers exploit include things like fear, curiosity, greed, and sometimes even our own human desire to help people. Coupled with things like “urgent response needed!”, seasonal timing like during the holidays, or piggybacking off of a news story, and you have a perfect storm to get hooked.
Recently, a phishing scam exploiting the coronavirus global health emergency has been circulating and been very successful. These emails, along with other phishing emails, can do things like install malware on your computer to steal your information, or even have you send someone money to “receive your vaccine.” But given how coronavirus has dominated headlines, many people are understandably scared and may find themselves susceptible.
“So what can I do?”
The good news is you just need to stay aware of emails, and social media posts, that illicit a reaction from you. When you receive one, stop and take a minute to breath and ask yourself if it seems right. Did you order something online recently? Do you know the person who emailed or messaged you? Would you receive this email on your work email rather than your home email? If something seems off, there are a few ways to check:
If a company is referenced in the email, go to the company’s page directly (not clicking on anything in the email). Log in and see if the website shows a similar issue (e.g. a package delivery issue).
If it’s from someone you know, contact them over text or the phone and ask them if it’s real. Don’t respond to the email or message to ask in case the email is not really from the person you know! And if someone else contacts you to ask about a suspicious email, don’t scold them, but thank them for checking with you.
If the email or social media post sounds too good to be true, go and research it online and see if other people have noted that it’s a scam.
Let Hive Systems come to you with our Approachable Cybersecurity Awareness Training. Designed to make cybersecurity approachable, we make our training actionable, not academic, with specific points to help you get better at cybersecurity. Book some time with us today to talk more about how Hive Systems can help you and your organization.
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