Ameaças à cibersegurança em tempos de pandemia

The COVID-19 Hackers Mind-set: White Paper of the ECHO Network of cybersecurity centres: The first online hackathon organised by the ECHO network took place on 6 April 2020, where experts from 15 members states discussed together in two teams the COVID-19 hackers mind-set. The main conclusion was that this pandemic offers cyber attackers unique opportunities to leverage existing attack tactics, techniques and procedures to exploit new opportunities created by a massive increase of employees working from home, children using home computers for schooling, as well as the human factor and emotions caused by the pandemic. Regardless of the motives behind a hack (profit or societal disruption), there are now ample opportunities and methods to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to engage in criminal cyber activities.

The ECHO White Paper #1  gives an overview of a number of these: Basic COVID-19 specific cyber awareness messages for the general public, easy to understand and share, should be disseminated on a daily basis. Similarly, specific information for companies and sectors should be made available through early warning information sharing networks, in order to ensure that they also take appropriate measures to protect themselves and our economy against cyber crime.