Paranoia around Coronavirus is Fueling Cyber Crime

Cyber criminals are capitalizing on the fear people have about the Coronavirus epidemic and are resorting to phishing emails, malware, key-loggers, and fake online charities to dupe people of their personal information and money. Cyber criminals are also targeting industries such as travel, shipping, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail to either create panic and bring businesses to a standstill or hold businesses to ransom unless they pay off the demanded ransom.

Fake emails seemingly from WHO and CDC on Coronavirus

Cyber criminals are most active with phishing emails. The bogus emails seem to come from the World Health Organization or the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, purportedly emphasizing the need for the precautions people must take to avoid getting infected. The message is short and asks readers to open a link within the email or open the attachment for detailed safety/precautionary measures and whom to contact. Once the reader clicks the link, she is redirected to a fake website, created to steal the user's details. In case the email attachment is opened, it leads to the automatic installation of the AgentTesla key-logger that can steal and send the entire activity log of infected computers to the remote cyber criminal.

In Japan, an email purportedly from a Japanese disability welfare service group is installing Emotet, one of the most notorious malware today. The email attachment pretends to provide information about the cities in Japan where the infection is spreading.

In Indonesia, people are finding fraudulent emails that aim to educate them about the precautions they can take to protect themselves from the deadly virus, only to install a malicious Lokibot malware.

Disrupting business operations

Businesses are not immune to these spam campaigns either with 45% of the organizations globally at risk of MVPower DVR Remote Code Execution attempts. In Japan, there was a marked rise in attempts to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, cyber criminals looking to use XMRig and Trickbot along with the Emotet malware will prove damaging to businesses as their vulnerability to data theft, extortion, and disruption of business operations will significantly increase.

Vaccines? Donations?

Cyber criminals are not restricted to email spam campaigns only. There is a surge in numerous other scams such as websites that pretend to sell vaccination for protection against the virus, domain-squatting, and even fake online charities requesting readers to donate.

In one such fund-raising campaign, Kaspersky researchers found an email, seemingly from the CDC, pleading for donations—$10 onward—to fund the huge costs towards relief activities. The catch here was the payments were to be made in Bitcoins. The CDC, which is a government agency, does not solicit donations from individuals, it being a government-funded agency, and certainly never in Bitcoin.

Time to be extra cautious

In a situation rife with people panicking and looking for online information regarding Coronavirus, cyber criminals have found a dream situation to exploit these fears. Therefore, it is the time to be extra cautious of any emails regarding coronavirus—whether they aim to provide information, safety measures, vaccination, or donations.

To avoid falling prey to such scams, we must exercise extra caution including:

1. Looking out for language mistakes. Usually, fraudulent emails are poorly worded and have grammatical mistakes.
2. Not clicking a link you receive in an email or SMS. Closely observe the URL. If it doesn't look trustworthy, it probably isn't. Just move on.
3. Not opening attachments if they try to educate you about the epidemic, its spread, or vaccines/medicines. Should you need the information, visit official websites of credible agencies such as the WHO.
4. Never sharing personal details or login credentials. Once stolen, these details can be used to steal money from your accounts and a number of other sinister crimes such as money laundering.
5. If you mistakenly shared your password, reset the password immediately. Cyber criminals use the stolen details immediately to maximize their exploits.
6. Using two-factor authentication to provide an extra layer of security to all your transactions.

The article has been written by Neetu Katyal, Content and Marketing Consultant

She can be reached on LinkedIn.