21 Mar Cybersecurity Pop Quiz: 24 Questions For Home Office Workers
Remote employees should prepare to combat cybercrime during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
– Suzanne Kattau-Marill, Sr. Editor & Producer
Northport, N.Y. – Mar. 21, 2020
Every remote worker needs to up their knowledge of cybercrime and cybersecurity, starting today. To help, Cybercrime Magazine has published a free Cybersecurity Pop Quiz with 24 multiple choice questions — including an answer key — available to all businesses and employees in the U.S. There is no registration required.
As our nation practices “social distancing” in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, millions of employees will be working from home, and most students will be attending school online. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency” (CISA) has released a cyber alert on its website, urging users to be vigilant and aware of scams related to COVID-19.
CISA warns that “cyber actors may send emails with malicious attachments or links to fraudulent websites to trick victims into revealing sensitive information or donating to fraudulent charities or causes.” The agency recommends that users carefully handle any email message they receive that contains a COVID-19-related subject line, attachment, or hyperlink. Also, users should “be wary of social media pleas, texts, or calls related to COVID-19.”
Jonathan Zhang, CEO at Whois XML API, agrees that users should avoid clicking on links in unsolicited emails. Cybercriminals are spreading Emotet, which is “a banking Trojan that steals victims’ accounts and other credentials via fake emails with malicious attachments,” according to a recent article by Zhang.
To lend credibility to their claims, Zhang says that cybercriminals pretend to be part of respected healthcare organizations giving information on how to avoid contracting the Coronavirus. Attackers are also using the Coronavirus outbreak as a phishing attack lure, he adds.
Robert Herjavec, a Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank and CEO at Herjavec Group, warns CEOs that they should not let Coronavirus fears distract their employees from phishing scams. For instance, attackers who claim to be part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in an attempt to convince users to click on an embedded link.
“The linked page looks like an Outlook page that asks potential victims to log in to view the supposedly useful content,” Zhang writes. “To make the link look authentic, the phishers used a domain look-alike (cdc-gov[.]org), which closely resembles the spoofed organization’s (cdc[.]gov).”
In one of his books, Scott Schober, a cybersecurity expert, author, inventor and the chief security officer (CSO) at Cybercrime Magazine, evangelizes a critical message for society — “Cybersecurity is everybody’s business.” Meaning, it is not just the domain of IT specialists and techies. We all need to know how to protect ourselves, at some level. According to Schober, there are 30 million small businesses in the United States alone, plus a multitude of midsize to large organizations.
Schober believes that everyone — including employees and students — should know how to stay safe from phishing attacks, malware spying, ransomware, identity theft, data breaches, and hackers who would compromise their security in other ways.
How much do you know about cybersecurity? You can find out by taking the Cybersecurity Pop Quiz (safe PDF file from Cybercrime Magazine), developed by Schober.
If you learn what your weak spots are from the quiz, then you might want to study up on them. And if you want to go so far as turning yourself into a human firewall, then you should read Schober’s book, which explains how to secure your Wi-Fi connection, choose strong passwords, implement two-factor authentication (2FA), and outsmart ransomware, phishing and catfishing attacks. You can even delve into surveillance and privacy issues in and out of the workplace.
Schober also explains how consumers can take out personal cybersecurity insurance in case their home falls victim to a cyberattack. This is timely advice for millions of new remote office workers. There are even companies that offer legal services and a home assessment for all electronic devices, including computers and Wi-Fi routers.
Small business owners should look into cyberinsurance policies as well. “Many small businesses today are teetering on the edge of collapse due to cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the lack of insurance for the inevitable breaches resulting from those same vulnerabilities.”
If you read Schober’s book, then you’ll find a glossary with over 117 terms to help you improve your cybersecurity knowledge and readiness. Cybercrime Magazine publishes an expansive list of free cybersecurity glossaries with hacking lingo for newbies, students, teachers – and you!
Take the Cybersecurity Pop Quiz now, and remember to always lock down your home office devices.
– Suzanne Kattau-Marill is Sr. Editor & Producer at Cybercrime Magazine
