Cybersecurity center advises ″ extreme caution ″ with digital content

The National Cybersecurity Center (CNCS) advised this Tuesday “extreme caution in accessing, receiving and sharing digital content associated with the new coronavirus”, due to possible exploitation by cybercrime.

The CNCS warns in a statement that “priority should be given to official or reputable sources of information”.

The statement, which is also endorsed by the Judiciary Police, recalls that “crisis contexts of international proportions are traditionally exploited by hostile cyberspace actors to sustain their cyberattack campaigns in social alarmism and global media attention on the topic” .

For CNCS, the case of Covid-19 “has been no exception” and since February, phishing campaigns (‘fishing’ of data) by email, SMS or on social networks have grown, covering the image of official entities such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF or research centers and laboratories, with contents alluding to the pandemic, including attached files, but aimed at capturing the victims’ personal data or at infecting their devices with malicious software.

CNCS also warns of digital fraud schemes shared by e-mail or on social networks, which publicize crowdsourcing initiatives to collect donations for false campaigns for the purchase of medical supplies or personal protection.

Dangerous are also “SMS sent to inform that, according to the law, extraordinary measures are being applied to fight Covid-19 and that all national citizens will be vaccinated, being guaranteed a refund of the costs by the government. it would be enough to pay a certain amount indicated in the SMS and by registering on the link sent they would later be refunded “.

The coronavirus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic has already infected more than 189,000 people, of whom more than 7800 have died.

Of those infected worldwide, more than 81,000 have recovered from the disease.

The outbreak began in China in December and spread to more than 146 countries and territories, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) today raised the number of confirmed cases of infection to 448, 117 more than on Monday, the day on which the first death occurred in the country.

Of the confirmed cases, 242 are recovering at home and 206 are hospitalized, 17 of which in Intensive Care Units (ICU).

The bulletin released by the DGS indicates 4030 suspected cases to date, of which 323 were awaiting laboratory results.

Of the people infected in Portugal, three recovered.

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