An international group of nearly 400 volunteers with cybersecurity expertise formed on Wednesday to fight hacking related to the new corona virus.
Called the COVID-19 CTI League, for information on cyber threats, the group spans more than 40 countries and includes senior professionals at major companies such as Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. One of the effort’s four initial managers, Marc Rogers, said the top priority would be to fight hacks against medical facilities and other first-line responders to the pandemic. It is already working on hacks from health organizations.
Also important is the defense of communications networks and services that have become essential as more people work from home, said Rogers, chief of security at the long-running hacking conference Def Con and a vice president of security company Okta Inc. The group is also using its web of contacts with Internet infrastructure providers to curb garden phishing attacks and another financial crime that fakes the fear of COVID-19 or the desire to use information about it to mislead regular Internet users.
& # 39; I’ve never seen this amount of phishing & # 39 ;, Rogers said. & # 39; I literally see phishing messages in every language known to man. & # 39; Phishing messages try to trick recipients into entering passwords or other sensitive information on websites operated by the attackers, who then use the data to take control of bank, email, or other accounts.
Rogers said the group had already dismantled a campaign that used a software vulnerability to spread malicious software. He declined to provide details, saying the group would generally be reluctant to disclose what it was fighting against. Rogers said law enforcement surprisingly welcomed the collaboration and recognized the magnitude of the threat.
Rogers is a British national and is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two other group coordinators are American and one is Israeli. & # 39; I’ve never seen this level of collaboration & # 39 ;, Rogers said. & # 39; I hope it continues after that as it is beautiful to see. & # 39;
(This story has not been edited by staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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