Under the Collar

Criminals continue to exploit the fear and uncertainty created by the COVID-19 crisis by engaging in targeted cyber attacks upon businesses in the United States.

According to the FBI’s Cyber Division, network security tools of health care providers recently identified a series of email phishing attacks. The subjects of these emails contained topics related to COVID-19 and had malicious files attached to them which, if opened, could have deployed ransomware or implanted malware to steal personal and financial data.

The attachments were Microsoft Word documents, 7-zip ...

Large-scale crises yield large-scale humanitarian responses — from international volunteer efforts and mobilization of national aid organizations to very local and mostly unrecognized community actions.  Every day, I hear of people checking in on elderly neighbors, offering to help each other with errands, and giving away highly-sought-after sanitation products.  Unfortunately, just as sure as most people respond to a crisis with good intentions, there are those who see opportunity and will seize this moment to try to profit from the collective fears and chaos.

“Price ...