Covid crime sprees and Indian Twitter battles the coronavirus crisis
Welcome to the Infodemic and, if you just joined us, thank you for signing up! We are tracking how disinformation surrounding the coronavirus crisis is reshaping our world. Here are the narratives, both real and fake, that have grabbed our team’s attention this week and deserve yours.
We are all eager to move on with our lives but, with infections on the rise in Latin America and Asia, the world has had its worst-ever Covid-19 week. The latest data from Johns Hopkins University showed a 12% increase in infections from the previous seven days, casting doubt on hopes that the end of the pandemic is in sight — especially as scientists worry that Brazil could be hothousing more new variants.
The pandemic is also breeding new kinds of crimes. Since it began, the world has seen a twofold rise in health-care-related hacking, and the number of instances in Israel has quadrupled. Lotem Finkelstein, head of cyber-intelligence at the online security company CheckPoint told Haaretz: “The average Israeli health care institute experiences about 1,500 attacks per week, while the global average is 700.” Israel says that it has traced many of the attacks to Iran, but criminals all over are trying to exploit the new goldmine of medical data. Their goals vary. Some are attempting to steal coronavirus research and vaccine data, others are targeting the personal information of medical staff and patients.
Vladimir Putin might be coming under a lot of pressure from the Biden administration, but the Russian leader was riding on a coronavirus-related high when he delivered his annual address to the nation this week. There was no mention of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is behind bars and in failing health. Instead, Putin focused most of his speech on domestic wins, including the success of the nation’s vaccine program. Take up in Russia may still be slow, but Sputnik V is being distributed in over 40 countries. It has even helped the small European nation of San Marino to get close to herd immunity in a matter of weeks.