The COVID-19 pandemic has been a boon for bad actors across the digital landscape. In July, for instance, authorities in the U.S., U.K. and Canada all issued warnings about serious cyberattacks against healthcare organizations and others involved in the coronavirus response. The purpose of these attacks? Theft of intellectual property during the race to develop a vaccine. The tool of choice? Spear-phishing email attacks.
Online scams are nothing new -- but as email has evolved and improved, so have scammers and the messages they send. Nefarious emails, attachments and links now appear sophisticated and look legitimate, sometimes tricking even the most meticulous user.
As long as healthcare organizations continue to use email, cybercriminals will find new ways to exploit security gaps, software bugs, and basic human nature to extort millions of dollars from their victims. In just the first six months of this year, Becker’s Hospital Review has noted more than 65 separate incidents of malware, ransomware and phishing attacks on healthcare providers, ranging from Alaska and Hawaii to Florida and Maine. These attacks affected more than 1.14 million patient records in just the cases that released statistics; the true number of those affected is much higher. While one-third of these attacks are specifically noted as being email-related, again, the true number is likely much higher.
The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way we approach data privacy and email security. The necessary and accelerated transition to working from home has been accompanied by a growing surge of Coronavirus-themed phishing scams and spoofed websites used to distribute malware or lure victims into providing confidential information.
Email is the preferred communication method for businesses around the world. It’s also the preferred attack vector for cybercriminals due to its ease of use and low cost, and since the beginning days of email, spam techniques have continued to evolve into a variety of sophisticated threats.
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The COVID-19 pandemic’s global spread has paved the way for threat actors to unleash the most widely-used cyber threat in recent memory. And healthcare entities are the most frequent target.
Office 365 is one of the world’s most commonly used software packages -- it’s in use by more than 1 million companies worldwide. The software suite announced more than 200 million individual users back in October 2019 and is adding about 3 million users each month.
Staying informed of the latest data privacy regulations as they apply to healthcare can be challenging. Not only are there a plethora of different security and retention requirements, but the risk of failure is higher than in any other sector:
This week, we learned of a new round of malware being distributed via phishing emails claiming to be from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
We live in an era where the amount of valuable data businesses must store is increasing at an unprecedented pace. Consequently, the number of cyber criminals trying to gain access to that data is also increasing. In fact, according to a report released last year by Osterman Research, 81% of organizations have been the victim of some type of data breach, targeted email attack, successful phishing attack or other cyber security incident during the previous 12 months. And with the surge of people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these numbers are only going to go up.
