Beware Of CyberCrime, Scammers Are Taking Advantage Of Covid-19- MTN Chief Information Officer Warns

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In times of the global crises where every nation is busily looking for antidote for the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic; Covid-19, it has been revealed that a lot of scammers are using the unfortunate occurrence to engage in cybercrime.

The Chief information officer of the most used telecommunication network in Ghana, MTN, Bernard Acquah, has clearly revealed that since the beginning of the year 2020, more than 4,000 coronavirus related domains have been registered worldwide and therefore admonished that users’ “in addition to washing your hands after every physical contact to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and using appropriate alcohol based cleaning solution to clean your phone, keyboard, game controllers, and remote controls, take the time to review your digital habits. Check that you have a long, complex router password for your home Wi-Fi and also ensure that system firewalls are active on your router.”

He further advised that customers use the password manager so they have absolute control over their equipments.

“You have to ensure you are not reusing passwords across the web (a password manager is a great investment). Also, invest and strengthen your spam filters and use a reliable Virtual Private Network (VPN) for internet access wherever possible.”

Mr Bernard Acquah stressed on the need to pay attention to only trusted sources of information received regarding data on the spread of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. He added that IT experts are advised to update their system softwares and applications regularly to patch any weaknesses that may be exploited.

Threats

According to the experienced Information Officer, the fight against the coronavirus pandemic calls for the vigilance of system administrators, with regards to patch deployments and the quality of patches they deploy.

“I have a Mac computer, they don’t get viruses, nobody wants to hack me. I’m not anybody important, my phone is safer than my laptop or computer because I can’t get hacked, and my antivirus software on my computer is enough to protect me, only makes one vulnerable to attacks and irreparable damages” Bernard added.

And therefore warned all to be alert!

By: Radio1News|Ghana|Obido Nana Gyasi