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Many people during this quarantine started for the first time in their lives working from home. For some it was easier, while others had to completely reinvent themselves. Let's think, for example, of some teachers who never thought they would have to do it and instead they find themselves from one day to the next (without a national plan) to be owed make do. It is for this reason that we want to tell you, after seeing these statistics, watch out for phishing!
We have already had the opportunity to talk about security during video calls and video conferences advising you against it strongly using the Zoom application. We have also already published an article on alternatives to use during this emergency.
In all of this, however, the problem of personal cybersecurity remains. Beyond preferring Jitsi to Zoom Unfortunately, there are some basic safety issues that many were not adequately prepared for. And that's what we think useless And counterproductive Now blame or mortify someone why maybe he hasn't learned yet.
Watch out for phishing
Unfortunately, many see this opportunity as one goose that lays golden eggs to be able to glean as much information as possible steal as many accounts as possible. In fact, the number of scam sites has drastically increased (phishing) who try to steal data and passwords. What you see are American data because we are mainly based on an article by Andrew Long. Nothing makes us think but that in Europe and in Italy the situation is somehow better, On the contrary.
The thing that intrigued us most is that in addition to being active many tools to steal information thanks to the excuse of Covid-19 The classic fake links and sites that make you believe you are on Paypal when you are actually somewhere else continue to have primacy. For this reason too we strongly advise you to always use thetwo-factor authentication. Even if they steal your password, without your 2FA code they go nowhere, especially if use a different password for all your accounts.
Unfortunately there is nothing we can do other than ask everyone to make a big effort and maybe help as much as possible the people who are somehow and for some reason left behind and who suffer a little this forced computerization. In fact, in addition to using safe tools, at least for avoid friendly fire, the only way forward is digital literacy. Help people to be aware of the dangers on the web and of how easy it is to fool someone.
Phishing, some useful tools to avoid falling for it
Some tools can come to our aid, if a person thinks they are not able to manage the matter independently, they can try to give them some tools. For example on PhishingCheck you can paste the suspicious URL and see where it redirects. Or there is the tool PhishTank: a huge huge archive of phishing sites. This solution is a little riskier because maybe some local phishing they are not yet registered.
The other advice that can be given is to use Firefox with some security extensions like HTTPS Everywhere and all the others that we recommend within the our article. You can also get some basic security knowledge in this article by Arturo di Corinto on Repubblica.
In short, if we continue to work from home for a long time watch out for phishing!
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