Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine and the innocent Russian people who do not support the senseless violence that this invasion is inflicting. And although we hope for a quick return to peace in Ukraine, there is already damage done that will take decades to repair.
Once there is peace, there will be lingering economic issues that will plague Ukraine and Russia for years to come, and according to many political experts, it is likely that these economic hardships will incite more cyber warfare.
Exploit Human Weakness
Cyber criminals know our weaknesses as humans, and they exploit these weaknesses to invade our homes and businesses.
- Humans want to trust people.
- Humans want to help people.
- Humans prefer to avoid conflict.
We are already seeing attempts to use our humanness against us as we all attempt to process what we are seeing in Ukraine.
We Want to Help
Experts around the globe are seeing phishing attempts that are disguised as vehicles to help the people of Ukraine. These phishing emails ask you to “Click on the link below” to help these people in need. Some include photos of families evacuating their homes with children clinging to their parent’s hands. Cyber criminals know all our “hot buttons” and will show images and use words to try and get us emotionally wrapped up so that we let our guards down … and CLICK!
Please, please, please … do not support the efforts of these bad actors by being careless when reviewing your email or text messages. Take extra steps to assure that you know where the email is coming from. Take the extra steps needed to make sure that the link within the email (or text message) is safe … and if you are not 100% certain … DO NOT CLICK!
FEAR – A Dangerous Emotion for Cyber Criminals to Attack
No one wants to mess up or be the one to cause a cyber breach in an organization … and the bad guys know this … they design cyber-attack campaigns around this. Cyber experts are warning users about phishing emails that will try to exploit this fear … especially as it relates to Putin’s war on Ukraine. Users might receive phishing emails that feed off this fear by saying something like this:
“Your system administrator has been notified that your account has been breached by Russian malware. PLEASE CLICK HERE to initiate our immediate response to this breach”
A user’s immediate reaction might cause them to panic just enough to click the link … and BAM! The attackers are in. We need to remind ourselves and our co-workers to NEVER click links within emails unless you are 100% certain you know who the sender is and where the link leads.
If there is ever a question … DO NOT CLICK!
Let’s keep our data, our networks and our businesses safe during these turbulent times. If you ever have any questions or concerns, or if you feel your team could use some additional training, please reach out to us. We would love to assist in any ways that we can.
