Companies are offering businesses free cybersecurity support as coronavirus scams proliferate and over-stretched healthcare providers become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Irish cybersecurity awareness training company Cyber Risk Aware announced yesterday that it would be providing free COVID-19 phishing tests for businesses. Companies are invited to run a phishing simulation in which up to 100 staff can learn how to avoid falling for COVID-19 lures.
Along with the free simulation, companies can download a checklist of Do's and Don'ts designed to keep employees who are working remotely cyber-safe.
Cyber Risk Aware CEO Stephen Burke told Infosecurity Magazine: "As a former CISO I wanted to give something back to the community. When I read hospitals were crippled and turning COVID-19 patients away owing to ransomware having been installed by a COVID-19 phishing email, I said enough is enough."
Asked what his thoughts were on the criminals attempting to profit from the outbreak of the deadly virus, Burke said: "It shows that they have no moral compass. To shut the hospital down is just so wrong. Lives will be lost, and all because they want to make money. Total greed, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
"They should ask themselves, if they or a loved one were to become very ill and were refused entry to a hospital as a consequence of a cyber-attack, how would they feel? I would hope they think again."
Also stepping in to help thwart conscious-free criminals hoping to profit from the global health crisis are American ransomware recovery company Coveware and New Zealand antivirus solutions company Emsisoft.
The pair have teamed up to offer free help to critical care hospitals and other healthcare providers that are on the front lines of COVID-19 and have been impacted by ransomware.
"We’re anticipating an increase in ransomware incidents which could be significantly in excess of the typical seasonal spikes and, unfortunately, may coincide with COVID-19’s peak, creating a perfect storm," said Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow.
"In partnership with incident response company Coveware, we’ve just launched an initiative that will enable healthcare providers to access both companies' complete range of ransomware-related services at no cost for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. The aim: to get impacted providers operational again in the shortest possible time so that patient care is minimally disrupted."