You may have seen many reports about Zoom’s security vulnerabilities. The Information Security Department conducted a risk assessment and has provided some tips for you to protect yourself while working from home.

Social engineering is the art of manipulating your emotions to achieve a certain goal, which then leads to compromise of your data or spyware installed on your work or personal machine.

Thousands of incidents of digital crime related to the COVID-19 outbreak have been reported as countries battle to bring virus infections under control. 

Criminals have been exploiting fears over the COVID-19 pandemic to launch an “unprecedented wave” ​of cyberattacks around the world.

Google Data Reveals a 350% Surge in Phishing Websites during Coronavirus Pandemic 

One tactic used by cybercriminals is to send out bulk emails with the aim of tricking users into opening attachments and documents claiming to contain information about COVID-19. When the files are accessed, malicious software (malware) is downloaded onto a computer that is then capable of stealing sensitive information, spying on users and surreptitiously extracting important data.

In addition, our detected virus infections emanating from KAUST houses during WFH are on the increase (see important note below).

With the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, besides practicing social distancing and frequent hand hygiene, there’s one more thing that we must continue doing: being vigilant against cybercrime!

How would you respond if you received an email with this message: "More coronavirus infections at KAUST!”

You check the sender, you re-read the email and you can tell whether it’s legit or not because you’re no ordinary person a cyber-criminal can target, you’re a Human Firewall! You click the Phish Reporter button, or you forward the email to PhishReporter@kaust.edu.sa.

Note: If your personal computer gets infected during this crisis, InfoSec will not block your home router as per current procedure to ensure that your WFH environment will not be impacted. We urge you to visit antivirus.kaust.edu.sa to download your free copy of our antivirus software to protect your personal assets.