Threat Actors Leverages Coronavirus

With the concerns about COVID-19 becomes more and more apparent threat actors have also began using this as a leverage for malicious activities.

On a report published by Check Point Research, there have been over 4,000 coronavirus-related domains registered globally. Out of these websites, 3% are said to be malicious and 5% are suspicious. Despite this number being low, they had also stated that Coronavirus-related domains are 50% more likely to be malicious over domains registered at the same period. Threat actors are quick to register these domains to take advantage of people trying to search online for more information regarding the spreading virus.

Apart from registering domains that are related to Coronavirus. Cyber-criminals have also used the virus as bait in emails. These spam ranges from using the virus to entice the recipient in clicking a link to a fake website, to spam that leverages the virus that also contained malware as its attachment. Report published by Check Point Research showed that the coronavirus was also used for APT. Spear-phishing emails were seen that uses coronavirus as its topic but actually contains malware. This 

Spam email imitates The New York Times but the link leads you to a pharmaceutical site selling vitamins

Now that we know cyber-criminals had started using the COVID-19 as its leverage to infect the cyber world. I think it is also our turn to be more cautious there as well as in the world. As a general rule, you should not click or open any email from someone you don't know. If you did receive an email from someone you know but you are not expecting this, kindly double check the content or better yet with the person who sent it. With our lives becoming more on more digital, it should only be right that we also practice right measures in securing ourselves.

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