Corona crisis: increased risk of cyber attacks

Lisa Vogel studied departmental journalism with a focus on medicine and biosciences at Ansbach University and deepened her journalistic knowledge in the master's degree in multimedia information and communication. This was followed by a traineeship in the editorial team. Since September 2020 she has been writing as a freelance journalist for

More posts by Lisa Vogel All content is checked by medical journalists.

IT security experts warn of an increased risk of cyber attacks in the coronavirus crisis. Among other things, you expect more phishing emails.

On the one hand, work computers at home are much more difficult to protect than within the networks of companies, said Mikko Hyppönen from the IT security company F-Secure of the German press agency. On the other hand, online criminals increasingly tried to steal users' passwords with phishing emails on coronavirus topics. "And people will fall for it in the coming weeks and months while they're scared."

"We have seen pretty much all malware families that are now jumping on this bandwagon," said Holger Unterbrink, who carries out threat analyzes at the security company Cisco Talos.

High risk for healthcare facilities

During the crisis, public health facilities are exposed to a particularly high risk of being attacked by cyber criminals, warned Unterbrink. "Even before Corona, hospitals were a popular target, especially for attacks with blackmail programs." The pandemic is making hospitals even more critical of the system than before. "For certain people this is even more incentive to attack them accordingly."

The company F-Secure registered four attacks on hospitals with blackmail Trojans that encrypt IT systems and demand ransom in the past two weeks. That is at the usual level - and that there is still no increase is good news, said Hyppönen. It is also not possible to determine whether they were targeted or automatically attacked.

How to recognize a phishing email

Phishing e-mails are e-mails with which fraudsters try to obtain sensitive data such as passwords or bank details of the mail recipients. The criminals often take advantage of crisis situations such as the current coronavirus wave, because they usually have an easier time with worried or frightened people.

Is an email doubtful to you? Then caution is advised. The following characteristics are typical of phishing emails: