Barracuda researchers have seen a steady increase in the number of coronavirus or COVID-19-related spear-phishing attacks since January 2020, but they have observed a recent spike in this type of attack, up 667-percent since the end of February 2020.
Recently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) cautioned taxpayers of the opportunity for criminals to steal economic impact payments through various means of deception.
A joint advisory published by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) shows that cyber criminals and advanced persistent threat (APT) groups are targeting individuals and organizations with a range of ransomware and malware.
Amid the hysteria over coronavirus (COVID-19), many people know to seek out trusted third-parties for guidance in situations like these, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But lesser known is the fact that phishing scammers have started capitalizing on the wide-spread fear and uncertainty for their benefit by posing as these authoritative agencies.
Concern over the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has dominated global headlines. And now cybercriminals are using all tools at hand to take advantage of this concern to spread phishing and social engineering scams and misinformation.
Picture this: a news story detailing a cyberattack in which no data was exfiltrated, thousands (or even millions) of credit card details weren’t stolen, and no data was breached. While this isn’t the type of headline we often see, it recently became a reality in Las Vegas.
New research finds it has never been easier for aspiring cybercriminals to impersonate companies and lure victims to fake websites. And potential profits are huge with some ‘salaries’ being promised of between $5 and $10k a week.
The Phishers' Favorites report for Q4 2019 says that PayPal remains the top brand impersonated by cybercriminals for the second quarter in a row, with Facebook taking the #2 spot and Microsoft coming in third.
