tag = "COVID-19"

Back to Blog

The Year In Review: How COVID-19 Has Changed Cyber Security

The novel coronavirus has dominated 2020, and in the cyber community, threat actors have capitalized on its impact from the beginning.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: File Sharing Services Abused to Steal Credentials

As enterprise workforces continue to transition to work from home environments, online file sharing and cloud storage tools are becoming a frequent, if not necessary means of collaboration. While abusing these types of platforms is nothing new to threat actors, the lures they use are now taking advantage of the novel coronavirus. The two examples below demonstrate how.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Threat Actors on Twitter Want You to Pay for Your Stolen Passwords

Cyber criminals are using COVID-19 to manipulate users on Twitter and steal funds through payment applications. Our latest example demonstrates how victims are being targeted with fake credential dumps.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: BEC Lures use Pandemic to Enhance Attacks

Threat actors are using the novel coronavirus to add credibility in recent Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. Below are three examples of how they are doing it.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Money Mule Scams Use Remote Opportunities to Entice Victims

As job losses grow due to the coronavirus pandemic, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the situation to recruit individuals into money mule scams. Below are two examples that reference work-from-home opportunities.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Scammers Impersonating Financial Institutions on Instagram

Threat actors are using the novel coronavirus to impersonate accounts on social media. The example below targets members of a credit union.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Money-Flipping Schemes Promise Coronavirus Cash

Threat actors are using social media to engage in money-flipping scams abusing the novel coronavirus. The two examples below demonstrate how they are doing it.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Threat Actors Abusing Utility Concerns

In response to the financial difficulties resulting from COVID-19, many utilities have announced policy changes to suspend disconnects and provide relief to customers. As a result, many people are uncertain about what will happen should they be unable to pay their utility bills during the pandemic. As our latest example shows, this uncertainty is being exploited by threat actors.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Bad Actors Use Stimulus Payment Delays to Capture Banking Credentials

With many U.S. citizens still waiting to receive their government-mandated stimulus, we are again seeing cyber criminals shift their tactics in accordance with the news cycle. Below is one example of a lure abusing access to an undeliverable stimulus payment.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Voicemail Attacks Surface Targeting Office 365 Users

Cyber criminals are using coronavirus-themed voicemail notifications in the latest efforts to act on pandemic fears and steal credentials. The example below shows how they are doing it.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Workplace Concerns Exploited to Distribute Malware

In recent efforts to deliver attacks that abuse the novel coronavirus, threat actors are exploiting workplace concerns about outbreak prevention and shipment delays. Below are two examples sent with the intent of delivering malware.

COVID-19: New Daily Intel Download and Webinar Next Week

In our continued effort to provide the most relevant cyber threat intelligence, we are launching two initiatives: a daily intel download and a web event.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Promise of Payments Fuel Financial Fraud

Cyber criminals are using the stimulus bill and relief payments to exploit growing concerns about financial security. The examples below are impersonating financial institutions.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Nigerian Prince Lures Evolve with Crisis

Threat actors are repurposing Nigerian Prince or 419 lures with novel coronavirus messaging to capitalize on the current pandemic. Today's examples demonstrate how they are doing it.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Infected Coworker Email Targets Enterprise O365 Credentials

Threat actors are exploiting employee concerns about infected colleagues. Our latest example targets Office 365 accounts at a large Canadian company by falsely claiming a colleague has died from the virus.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Email Posing as Scam Guidance Delivers Malware Instead

The novel coronavirus is giving opportunistic threat actors new means of deploying malicious lures on unsuspecting targets. Today's example shows the attacker leveraging the pandemic by offering guidance on how to avoid coronavirus scams. Unfortunately, it's also a scam.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Your Bank is Not Texting You About Coronavirus

Threat actors continue using COVID-19 fears to exploit individuals on a variety of channels. Today we are taking a look at two new, related SMS lures.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Threat Actors Impersonating CDC, WHO

As COVID-19 continues to spread, we are seeing an increase in threat actors impersonating public health organizations and luring victims in with fake links to government agencies. The four examples below impersonate the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) using lures we have recently observed.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Campaigns Exploiting Hope for a Cure

We continue to see a wide range of lures exploiting coronavirus fears. In this post, we take a look at three recently observed lure samples that use the possibility of a cure to entice victims.

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Insurance Coverage Lures

As COVID-19 cases have further spread over the past few weeks, our team has come across new lures that target an individual's fear of coronavirus as it relates to their health insurance coverage. Both examples lead to malicious sites that attempt to steal Microsoft Office 365 login credentials.

COVID Phishing Update – Coronavirus wants your Bonus, too

A few weeks ago we noted some early examples of Coronavirus campaigns. Since then, the pandemic has spread and we've seen a dramatic uptick in COVID-19-themed malicious activity, with everything from domain registration to phishing emails and even malware campaigns. Going forward, we will be publishing more examples as we find additional methods cybercriminals are using to exploit the crisis.