When the coronavirus pandemic forced many organizations and governments to up their virtual game, online threats also became more prominent.

Nitin Sukhija, director of the Center for Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing at Slippery Rock University, said creation of malicious computer viruses, or malware, increased during the pandemic. This put more security risks online, where more people have been spending more time.

“What has been happening in the past two years when everything went virtual is things are exposed more than ever,” said Sukhija, who also is associate professor of computer science at SRU.

“Everyone is connecting from home, and the problem is we have seen an increase in ransomware in the past three years,” he said.

This story is shared with you as a digital media exclusive. Please consider supporting our local, independent newsroom by subscribing at butlereagle.com.