With the Coronavirus outbreak skyrockets dependency on communication networks and health organisations for the world to operate, the same has become a hotbed for cyber attackers in recent months.
To protect the networks from a potentially crippling attack, an international group of white hackers? by the name of COVID-19 CTI League has now been formed.
Almost 400 experts in cyber security decided to work together starting Wednesday to fight against any hacking attempt centred around the Coronavirus. COVID-19 CTI (cyber threat intelligence) League includes participants from more than 40 countries and major tech firms including Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc.
With the ongoing pandemic across the world, medical establishments and services are bustling with people dependent on them for their lives. At such a time, any cyber attack on such institutions can potentially have a crippling effect and affect the lives of many.
COVID-19 CTI League aims to avoid that by securing such institutions and other frontline responders to the pandemic. The group is already said to have been working on hacks of health organisations as per a Reuters report.
In addition, the group will keep a check on the communications networks and services and safeguard them against any cyber attacks as these form a crucial part of the work from home practice now being followed across the globe.
An unprecedented increase in phishing attacks has also been observed in the last couple of weeks as the world faces a scare from the virus. Financial attacks in the name of the virus have become commonplace and COVID-19 CTI League promises to work towards eliminating these phishing attacks too.
A typical phishing attack tries to trick the victim into entering the mail ID and password or other such confidential information. Once the information is submitted, the attackers try to use that data to blackmail the victim or take control of the online accounts themselves.
Interestingly, COVID-19 CTI League has already been able to squash one such phishing campaign. While the details of the same have not been revealed, it is interesting to note how an international group of ethical hackers have come together in these times of crisis and will be helping the world function normally.
In a similar effort, Folding@Home asked PC users across the globe to share their computer’s processing power with the researchers to help them find a cure for the Coronavirus. The result? A tsunami of computing performance has been seen from around the globe. You can read all about it here.
(With inputs from Reuters)