Cybersecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the 2020 global lockdown became a universal strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing triggered a massive reliance on online and cyberspace alternatives and switched the world to the digital economy. Despite their effectiveness for remote work and online interactions, cyberspace alternatives ignited several Cybersecurity challenges. Malicious hackers capitalized on global anxiety and launched cyberattacks against unsuspecting victims. Internet fraudsters exploited human and system vulnerabilities and impacted data integrity, privacy, and digital behaviour.

Cybersecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic demystifies Cybersecurity concepts using real-world cybercrime incidents from the pandemic to illustrate how threat actors perpetrated computer fraud against valuable information assets particularly healthcare, financial, commercial, travel, academic, and social networking data. The book simplifies the socio-technical aspects of Cybersecurity and draws valuable lessons from the impacts COVID-19 cyberattacks exerted on computer networks, online portals, and databases. The book also predicts the fusion of Cybersecurity into Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics, the two emerging domains that will potentially dominate and redefine post-pandemic Cybersecurity research and innovations between 2021 and 2025.

The book's primary audience is individual and corporate cyberspace consumers across all professions intending to update their Cybersecurity knowledge for detecting, preventing, responding to, and recovering from computer crimes. Cybersecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic is ideal for information officers, data managers, business and risk administrators, technology scholars, Cybersecurity experts and researchers, and information technology practitioners. Readers will draw lessons for protecting their digital assets from email phishing fraud, social engineering scams, malware campaigns, and website hijacks.

隨著2020年全球封鎖成為控制COVID-19大流行的普遍策略，社交距離觸發了對線上和網絡空間替代方案的大量依賴，並將世界轉向數字經濟。儘管這些替代方案對於遠程工作和線上互動非常有效，但網絡空間替代方案引發了幾個網絡安全挑戰。惡意黑客利用全球焦慮發動了針對毫無戒心的受害者的網絡攻擊。網絡詐騙分子利用人為和系統漏洞，對數據完整性、隱私和數字行為產生了影響。

《COVID-19大流行中的網絡安全》通過使用大流行期間的真實網絡犯罪事件來解釋網絡安全概念，說明了威脅行為者如何對特別是醫療、金融、商業、旅遊、學術和社交網絡數據進行計算機欺詐。該書簡化了網絡安全的社會技術方面，並從COVID-19網絡攻擊對計算機網絡、線上門戶和數據庫產生的影響中獲得了寶貴的教訓。該書還預測了網絡安全與人工智能和大數據分析的融合，這兩個新興領域有望在2021年至2025年間主導並重新定義後疫情時期的網絡安全研究和創新。

該書的主要受眾是各行各業的個人和企業網絡空間消費者，他們希望更新他們的網絡安全知識，以檢測、預防、應對和恢復計算機犯罪。《COVID-19大流行中的網絡安全》非常適合信息官員、數據管理人員、業務和風險管理人員、技術學者、網絡安全專家和研究人員以及信息技術從業人員。讀者將從中獲得保護他們的數字資產免受電子郵件釣魚欺詐、社交工程詐騙、惡意軟件攻擊和網站劫持的教訓。

Kenneth Okereafor is Deputy General Manager responsible for Database Security at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Nigeria. He is a United Nations trained Cybersecurity and Biometric expert with 24 years' ICT experience spanning industry, government, and academia. He has specialized skills in Threat Mitigation Technologies for preventing, detecting, and responding to Cyberattacks. He is a member of the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee on Health Informatics (ISO-TC-215), and he chairs ISO's Security and Privacy Working Group-4 in Nigeria developing Cybersecurity standards for digital health.
Kenneth was a key member in developing Nigeria's eHealth Strategic Framework (2015-2020) in collaboration with the WHO and UN Foundation. Prior to joining NHIS in 2013, he had extensive data security work experience in telecoms, diplomatic relations, and public sector including the US Department of State where he supported the Biometric security rollout for personnel at the US Embassy in Nigeria.
In addition to advanced Cybersecurity training by ITU, UNESCO, SANS Institute, EC Council, and ISACA, Kenneth holds a PhD in Cybersecurity from Azteca University Mexico, where his research in Biometric Security resulted in the Multi-Modal Random Trait Biometric Liveness Detection System (MMRTBLDS), a framework that improves biometric authentication by diminishing imposter predictability. He graduated cum laude and obtained an MSc in Network Security and BSc in Computer Information Systems from American Heritage University of Southern California, and has a first class background in Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering.
His research interests centre on Global Cybersecurity, Incident Response, Cyberattack Prevention and Mitigation, Biometric Security, Threat Intelligence, eHealth Security, Telemedicine, and Digital Identities.

Kenneth Okereafor是尼日利亞國家健康保險計劃（NHIS）的副總經理，負責數據庫安全。他是聯合國培訓的網絡安全和生物識別專家，擁有24年的ICT經驗，涵蓋行業、政府和學術界。他在預防、檢測和應對網絡攻擊方面具有專業技能。他是國際標準化組織（ISO）健康信息學技術委員會（ISO-TC-215）的成員，並擔任ISO在尼日利亞的安全和隱私工作組-4主席，負責制定數字健康的網絡安全標準。

Kenneth是與世界衛生組織（WHO）和聯合國基金會合作開發尼日利亞電子健康戰略框架（2015-2020）的重要成員。在2013年加入NHIS之前，他在電信、外交關係和公共部門擁有廣泛的數據安全工作經驗，包括在美國國務院支持尼日利亞美國大使館人員的生物識別安全推出。

除了接受ITU、UNESCO、SANS Institute、EC Council和ISACA的高級網絡安全培訓外，Kenneth還擁有墨西哥阿茲特克大學的網絡安全博士學位。他的生物識別安全研究成果是多模態隨機特徵生物識別活體檢測系統（MMRTBLDS），該框架通過減少冒名預測性來提高生物識別驗證的效果。他以優異成績畢業，獲得南加州美國遺產大學的網絡安全碩士學位和計算機信息系統學士學位，並具有電子和電信工程的一流背景。

他的研究興趣集中在全球網絡安全、事件應對、網絡攻擊預防和緩解、生物識別安全、威脅情報、電子健康安全、遠程醫療和數字身份等領域。