On May 29, the RIF.Online platform hosted a roundtable discussion, Digital Security Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: New Threats and Vulnerabilities, which drew leading Runet experts in software, hardware, economic, content and domain threats.
The event participants discussed the most urgent digital threats amidst the current pandemic, and talked about the changes that have taken place as regards security of digital transactions, the circulation of personal data, and web content. Another important issue discussed was the upcoming changes in the 'digital landscape' concerning security in the post-pandemic world.
According to Andrei Yarnykh, Head of GR and Strategic Projects at Kaspersky Lab, the shift to remote work introduced in Russia during the coronavirus pandemic is affecting companies not only economically but also in terms of security with infrastructure becoming more vulnerable to malicious activity. "Employees use computers in poorly protected home networks, receive remote access to corporate networks, and increasingly become targets of cybercriminals in the ongoing chaos," Yarnykh commented. "At the same time, companies have to cut their budgets, often through reducing expenses on digital protection solutions. This has led to an upsurge in hastily adjusted and vulnerable entry points to company networks, while cybercriminals - who are already operating remotely - are quick to use this advantage; also, they are utilizing the coronovirus theme, an issue relevant to virtually everyone."
Andrei Yarnykh provided some advice that could help companies organize safe remote work. The expert suggests that dedicated secured gateways should be provided for all staff members who have access to a company's network; employees should obligatorily install antivirus software on all the gadgets they use to access the network; and companies could launch their own servers for videoconferences.
According to Alexander Vurasko, specialist at Doctor Web, fraudsters are indeed making efforts to monitor the current situation on the market and find fresh opportunities to adapt their well established criminal schemes to this situation rather than inventing new ones. "The most obvious fraudulent schemes are phishing and fake websites. Starting in March, we have registered about 10-20 new scam sites daily. They disguise themselves as the websites of state agencies, online shops, and services that claim to help people gain permits for traveling around a city or crossing the border," Vurasko noted. "Interestingly, cybercriminals can unite in the web's shady segment by, for example, supporting a database of phishing site templates that allow the launch of such a resource with just a few clicks."
Urvan Parfentyev, coordinator at the Safer Internet Center and leading analyst at the Regional Public Center of Internet Technologies (ROCIT), spoke about content threats. "April saw a considerable growth in the number of economic threats on the web such as various digital frauds. The volume of content threats, such as fake news related to COVID-19, remains more or less the same; the rate of posting and detectability has stabilized," he emphasized.
The roundtable discussion concluded with a report by Olga Baskakova, Head of Projects at Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, who spoke about efforts to monitor "coronavirus" domains in the ccTLDs zone. Since January 2020, the center’s experts have analyzed all registrations related to the issue of the pandemic and measures to curb the infection, with a considerable increase in their number occurring in mid March and a plateau being reached in mid April. "We used this data to approach competent organizations operating under our Netoscope project which could help minimize the potential harm from such 'coronavirus domains,'" Baskakova commented. "Particularly representative are the results of our cooperation with Kaspersky Lab: in March and April, experts analyzed over 2,000 domain names in .RU and nearly 500 in .РФ; 1,800 of them were marked with the data loss threat flag in Kaspersky Lab software products.
Olga Baskakova also mentioned the Coordination Center's joint efforts with international organizations to exchange data on tackling cyber threats related to COVID-19.
The Russian Internet Forum is taking place in an online format for the first time in its 24-year history. This year, over 100 online sessions will be organized in the period to September, attracting experts from various economic fields and sectors. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ is the forum co-organizer as well as the initiator of a number of specialized sections. The next section, which will take place on June 16 and focus on legal aspects of the domain industry, is entitled Domain Names and Intellectual Property, Domain Disputes, and Assessment and Protection of Domain Names and Means of Identification.
