Unauthorised entities are using au-gt.com impersonating our au.gt.com domain. Please confirm emails by contacting us here
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Hackers will use any issue to extort for their own gain, and COVID-19 is no exception – a lure to compromise victim’s computers due to the confusion, urgency, misinformation and a personal connection for all – it’s a hacker’s gold mine.
As organisations rush to shift their businesses and workforce online with a heavy reliance on working from home, cybercriminals are ramping up their tactics to take advantage of those who may have inadequate or naive security postures as a result.
If you’re enacting or broadening your remote working policies, we encourage you to consider the following:
Be especially wary of any email or communication suggesting it is from the DHS or WHO, even if it appears to come from a legitimate address on the official domain (e.g dhhs[.]vic[.]gov[.]au, health[.]gov[.]au, and who[.]int). Unless you operate in the healthcare industry, it is unlikely that these agencies will be sending you emails about COVID-19. Also, remember that official entities do not take cryptocurrency payments, so any request of this type should be considered malicious.
Users may no longer be able to visit the IT helpdesk physically and organisations need to prepare staff for new procedures for IT support.
By taking some pragmatic steps, organisations and individuals can prepare so that information security is not an unintended casualty of the pandemic.
