New data sees increase of vaccine-related phishing impersonating companies
New data from Barracuda Networks reveals that hackers are taking advantage of the heightened focus on the COVID-19 vaccine and are increasingly using vaccine-related emails in targeted spear-phishing attacks.
The findings, which were contained in the company's most recent Threat Spotlight, analyzed phishing emails between October 2020 and January 2021. The number of vaccine-related spear-phishing attacks increased by 12% immediately following vaccine availability announcements from Pfizer and Moderna in November 2020. However, by the end of January 2021, following the continued successful rollout of the vaccine, the average number of vaccine-related spear-phishing attacks was up 26% since October.