The Covid-19 pandemic has presented criminals with new opportunities to exploit weaknesses while we all concentrate on adjusting to our own unique and, at times, onerous situations.

Alas, in my opinion many of the most successful criminals are often better strategists than some of the most powerful business executives in the world. If only some of them had decided to channel their skills into legitimate enterprises, their destinies may have been considerably different and their benefit to society insurmountable.

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented criminals with new opportunities to exploit weaknesses while we all concentrate on adjusting to our own unique and, at times, onerous situations which might involve working from home, home schooling, caring for a vulnerable friend or relative, dealing with grief, isolation, bad mental health...the list goes on.

A high demand for various rare goods, the end of travel plus an increase in anxiety and remote working has presented groups of organised criminals with new opportunities. Once populations were locked down, it took these tactical innovators almost no time at all to send out emails and text messages purporting to be from banks to our inboxes and mobile phones with offers of counterfeit hand sanitiser.

Cyber-crime

With the vast amount of us working from home, criminals in cyberspace have "upped their ante" and the UK's National Cyber-Security Centre (NCSC) has reported a significant spike in the number of scam emails being sent out, resulting in the launch of their Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS). The SERS received in excess of 5,000 reports of suspicious emails within the first day of its launch and these reports led to 83 scams being removed from the Web.

To quote a recent example of a large-scale attack, the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments announced this month that it had been the victim of a cyber-attack on its online payments process on or around 14 February, which is believed to have compromised the financial information of something in excess of 1,000 of its members. Investigations are still in progress but the CISI has reported that hackers installed malware onto a vulnerable part of its software, the better to mine its members' details.

The NCSC has offered helpful and user-friendly guidance on the subject to both businesses and employees who are working from home. By imparting knowledge and awareness about the issue with employees, by sharing relevant examples with them and by offering tips about what to look out for in order to spot malicious emails, it argues that companies can follow 'best practice' while making an attack on their data and cyber-security less likely and/or less damaging.

Fraud

Fraudsters will always try to exploit financial services when there is a distraction and everyone is looking elsewhere. They are most likely to manage to rush something through with a weak explanation, or bypass usual security controls, while the target business is trying to deal with a crisis. This is a well-known risk and Covid-19 is one such crisis. While employees juggle the challenges and distractions of working from home, remote schooling, looking after infants and just generally trying to function during a particularly stressful and anxious time, fraudsters are waiting in the wings for their opportunities to pounce.

The UK's National Fraud & Cyber Crime Reporting Centre reported a 400% increase in fraud reports related to the Coronavirus in March alone.