While the pandemic known as COVID-19 is causing a dramatic increase in coronavirus-themed phishing attacks, it’s strangely having the opposite effect on other phishing attacks.
When it comes to phishing attacks, hackers tend to “specialize” in a certain type of phishing attack. And as things turn out, some of these “specialists” are really feeling the pinch from COVID-19. A lot of people are struggling in this economy, and apparently some of them are bad guys.
If you’re like most people, you have a router in your home. It’s the little black box that gets internet connectivity from your ISP and distributes it throughout your home either via ethernet cable or via a wireless network. Did you know those routers are currently under attack by scammers looking to capitalize on the coronavirus pandemic?(more…)
Just the simple fact of working from home due to coronavirus leaves you more vulnerable to phishing attacks than if you were at work. Why is that? Because it’s almost certain that the cyber defenses on your home network are not as good as those on your company’s network.
Apparently there’s someone out there using the idea that a family member has been a car wreck as an opportunity to phish you in Bowling Green, KY. “According to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, if a family member was involved in a ‘wreck’ they do not need you to immediately send them money. Also, do not give out your date of birth or social security number.”
If you’ve been paying any attention, you’ve seen that the healthcare industry is under a constant threat from phishing attacks that lead to ransomware. Every week it seems there’s another healthcare organization hit with a data breach or ransomware. The question is, why? And now we know the answer.
The short answer is, healthcare organizations are an easy target for hackers because their cyber defenses stink. So, the real question is, why do healthcare organizations cyber defenses stink? The short answer here is, it’s just not a priority for them. And apparently, the hackers know it.
By now you should know that coronavirus is being used to phish victims. And now apparently, it’s also being used to launch ransomware…on smartphones. From SC Magazine, “A malicious Android app that supposedly helps track cases of the coronavirus actually locks users’ phones and demands a ransom in order to restore access.”
Candidates running for political office today, especially those running for president, have to get their message out. And more and more that means sending out emails. Lots of emails. Emails that can easily be misinterpreted as spam.
You have to hand it to those hackers, they’re always innovating. This week comes news of two new phishing exploits designed to do one thing: convince you it’s NOT a phishing email.
First, fromThreat Post, comes a clever exploit that uses YouTube redirect links, which are whitelisted by many security defense mechanisms, to evade detection. From the article, “If certain malicious URLs are blocked by web browser phishing filters, attackers commonly use a redirector URL to bypass these filters and redirect the victim to their phishing landing page. URL redirects have been used in previous campaigns, including malicious redirect code affecting Joomla and WordPress websites and HTML redirectors being used by Evil Corp. Now, a new campaign is using legitimate YouTube redirect links.”
Worried that your security certificate is out of date? You should be, but not because it’s out of date, but because the notice you get informing you it’s out of date is a scam.
