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Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 12: In the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, Internet service providers in Kerala have agreed to step up the network capacity by 30 to 40 per cent of the present capacity to meet the demand, especially in view of the spurt in work-at-home mode.

"The decision was made at a meeting of representatives of various telecom service providers in Kerala circle and officials of the Telecommunication Department convened by the Secretary, Electronics and IT, following a direction by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to look into the issue," said a press release by the IT Department.

The decision will be beneficial for those working in IT institutions. The government has come out with a set of suggestions to avoid social gatherings at public places in view of coronavirus spread. Telecom service providers have assured the government that they are well equipped to face the current situation.

The major part of Internet consumption in Kerala is made available through local servers. Moreover, global Internet traffic is very low as compared to the overall consumption. So, increasing the capacity won't be difficult, service providers informed.

"Complaints regarding the low availability of the Internet due to the spurt in consumption of the Internet can be made to the service providers to their complaint redressal number or inform state government call centre (155300). But complaints regarding the insufficiency in the current network infrastructure should be strictly avoided," said the release.

The IT Department will also demand daily reports from various telecom service providers. By analysing these reports, steps for remedies will be taken after bringing the sudden increase in consumption to the service providers.

Cybercriminals continue to exploit public fear of rising coronavirus cases through malware and phishing emails in the guise of content coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US and World Health Organisation (WHO), says cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

In the APAC region, Kaspersky has detected 93 coronavirus-related malware in Bangladesh, 53 in the Philippines, 40 in China, 23 in Vietnam, 22 in India and 20 in Malaysia. 

Single-digit detections were monitored in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Thailand. 

Along with the consistent increase of 2019 coronavirus cases comes the incessant techniques cybercriminals are using to prey on public panic amidst the global epidemic, the company said in a statement. 

Kaspersky also detected emails offering products such as masks, and then the topic became more commonly used in Nigerian spam emails. Researchers also found scam emails with phishing links and malicious attachments.

One of the latest spam campaigns mimics the World Health Organisation (WHO), showing how cybercriminals recognise and are capitalising on the important role WHO has in providing trustworthy information about the coronavirus.

"We would encourage companies to be particularly vigilant at this time, and ensure employees who are working at home exercise caution. 

"Businesses should communicate clearly with workers to ensure they are aware of the risks, and do everything they can to secure remote access for those self-isolating or working from home," commented David Emm, principal security researcher.

Some malicious files are spread via email. 

For example, an Excel file distributed via email under the guise of a list of coronavirus victims allegedly sent from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was, in fact, a Trojan-Downloader, which secretly downloads and installs another malicious file. 

This second file was a Trojan-Spy designed to gather various data, including passwords, from the infected device and send it to the attacker.