The Covid-19 pandemic since its early days of development has resulted in ‘fertile ground’ for various malefactors to thrive. There had been black marketeering of essential commodities and Covid combating articles in various parts of the country, for example. But, all these will seem petty compared to the one that is now feared- large-scale phishing attacks aimed at stealing citizens’ personal and financial information. The warning is ought to be taken seriously since it has come from none other than Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-In which is under the Information Technology Ministry with specific duties to protect the country’s netizens from cyber threats. Looking at this new-found danger, it seems that the lethal coronavirus is not the sole marauder and has some trusted ‘accomplices’ as well. At a time when the country’s Health department is facing an avalanche of questions over handling of the pandemic, it will now be interesting to observe how ‘Digital India’ responds and how ‘matured’ it is to face the challenge.

CERT-In in a tweet on Saturday has asked the netizens, comprising both individuals and business entities to guard against phishing attacks purportedly by certain ‘malicious actors’. Throwing light on the modus operandi, the national cyber sentinel has said that malicious emails under the pretext of local authorities in charge of dispensing government-funded Covid support initiatives could be sent to the ‘preys’ with the intention of luring them towards fake websites where the actual action is supposed to take place- temptation-triggered downloading of malicious files or sharing of personal and financial information, which actually may lead to wiping out of bank accounts, installation of malware, access to sensitive information etc. It is welcoming that CERT-In has specifically informed that the phishing campaign which is likely to commence from June 21 onwards will see emails such as 'ncov2019@gov.in' in the inboxes and as such it will be prudent to discard them altogether. But since the danger can’t be expected to remain restricted to this preventive measure alone, netizens have also been advised not to open attachments in unsolicited emails even if they arrive from one’s contacts list and refrain from clicking the URLs, however safe they apparently appear.

Cybercrimes are on the rise and the pandemic has opened up newer avenues for cybercriminals to deceive people who, as facts will endorse, are gullible as ever. It can be recalled that in May, scammers tried to access banking details of borrowers in the pretext of helping them to avail the RBI-announced EMI moratorium benefit.

To avert this virtual danger, just as it is necessary for the netizens  to take guard, it is also the responsibility of the government to stress more on the educational aspects of cybercrime.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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