It is a sign of our times that anyone online is constantly receiving worrisome messages, even some straight from Italy's Postal Police, regarding malware being disseminated via email from massive online spammers. Naturally, in a time in which our lives are conditioned around the containment of the pandemic before us, this news begs the question: Who, in such a tragic time would be trying to sabotage the best means of communication that today is so indispensable in helping us all confront the coronavirus pandemic? After all, it's a tool that allows us not to miss out on our academic years as students or to organize university lessons or graduation ceremonies remotely, that allows us to stay in constant contact with family and friends near or far, to hold board meetings, legal proceedings and work. Today more than ever, all of us indiscriminantly have discovered just how essential is this means of communication. We have done everything to attain the maximum resources from it, to accelerate e-learning processes, to send out notifications, to recognize its legal value in terms of legitimizing all activities done over the internet, only to find out just how dangerously fragile and penetrable the entire system is by bad actors.
Looting is a phenomenon that has always taken place in times of crisis throughout history. But computerized looting is particularly invasive and worrying: It's without borders, it can't be contained by virtue of isolation, and it's very difficult to confront. In short, it is tantamount to a cybervirus that spreads across the globe in a very short amount of time; more aggressive than the actual coronavirus we've been battling for weeks and with the deployment of all the powers of modern medical science at our disposal.
Read More at Luiss Open [Italian]