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Spam, ‘phishing’ and malware: The global health crisis caused by the new coronavirus pandemic is seen as an opportunity for hacker groups backed by the country, Google warned today.
The internet search giant reported on a blog the appearance of numerous attempts by hackers to profit from the pandemic, targeting government officials and international organizations working to combat COVID-19 in its attacks.
“A notable campaign targeted the personal accounts of government-paid United States government employees with ‘phishing’ messages that appeared to have been sent by fast food chains related to COVID-19,” Shane Huntley reported from Threat Google Analysis Group (Threat Analysis Group), which tracks cyber security threats.
“Some emails offer free meals or discount coupons, others redirect to such online ordering sites, designed to get the Gmail usernames of those who click on the links,” he added.
Some hackers pose as health institutions to trick their victims into causing them to download ‘malware’.
Last week, Google had already reported that it had detected 18 million covid-19 related messages per day via Gmail, in addition to 240 million daily spam emails linked to the health crisis.
The California-based company says it can block 99.9% of these attacks even before they hit their target.
And it announced Wednesday the allocation of $ 200,000 in grants to researchers, which will help identify the different flaws and weaknesses of the system.
The positive point is that the volume of attacks launched by state-supported groups would not have increased. “This is just a change of tactics,” explains Shane Huntley.
This volume even declined in March, a sign that “hackers, like many other organizations, face reduced productivity and problems related to global closure and quarantine efforts.”
