Have You Been a Victim of COVID-19-Related Cyber Incidents? Survey, Taxonomy, and Mitigation Strategies

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 8; pp. 124134 - 124144
• Main Authors: Hakak, Saqib, Khan, Wazir Zada, Imran, Muhammad, Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond, Shoaib, Muhammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.01.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Communications Technology; Computational and Artificial Intelligence; Computer crime; Computers and Information Processing; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; cyberattacks; Disease control; Internet-of-Things Attacks and Defenses: Recent Advances and Challenges; mitigation; Pandemics; potential solutions; Privacy; Risk management; security and privacy; Taxonomy; Theft; Videoconferencing
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3006172

Cybercriminals are constantly on the lookout for new attack vectors, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. For example, social distancing measures have resulted in travel bans, lockdowns, and stay-at-home orders, consequently increasing the reliance on information and communications technologies, such as Zoom. Cybercriminals have also attempted to exploit the pandemic to facilitate a broad range of malicious activities, such as attempting to take over videoconferencing platforms used in online meetings/educational activities, information theft, and other fraudulent activities. This study briefly reviews some of the malicious cyber activities associated with COVID-19 and the potential mitigation solutions. We also propose an attack taxonomy, which (optimistically) will help guide future risk management and mitigation responses.