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PREDICTIVE
INTELLIGENCE
Threat
spotlight:
Coronavirus-related phishing
As much of the world grapples with the new
Coronavirus – COVID-19 – and how to handle it,
attackers are taking advantage of the widespread
discussion of COVID-19 in emails and across the web.
Klaus Gheri, VP and General Manager, Network Security
at Barracuda Networks, talks us through Barracuda research
which shows the types of attacks detected.
arracuda
B
researchers
have seen a
steady increase
in the number of
COVID-19-related
email attacks
since January, but they have observed a
recent spike in this type of attack – up
667% since the end of February.
Between March 1 and March 23,
Barracuda Sentinel has detected
467,825 spear phishing email attacks
and 9,116 of those detections were
related to COVID-19, representing about
2% of attacks. In comparison, a total of
1,188 Coronavirus-related email attacks
were detected in February and just 137
were detected in January. Although the
overall number of these attacks is still
low compared to other threats, the threat
is growing quickly.
Highlighted threat
Coronavirus-related phishing – A
variety of phishing campaigns are
taking advantage of the heightened
focus on COVID-19 to distribute
malware, steal credentials and scam
users out of money. The attacks use
common phishing tactics that are seen
regularly. However, a growing number
of campaigns are using the Coronavirus
as a lure to try to trick distracted
users and capitalise on the fear and
uncertainty of the intended victims. The
FBI recently issued an alert about these
types of attacks.
The details
Barracuda researchers have seen
three main types of phishing attacks
using Coronavirus COVID-19 themes
– scamming, brand impersonation and
business email compromise. Of the
Coronavirus-related attacks detected
by Barracuda Sentinel through March
23, 54% were scams, 34% were brand
impersonation attacks, 11% were
blackmail and 1% were business
email compromise.
Phishing attacks using COVID-19 as
a hook are quickly becoming more
sophisticated. Barracuda researchers
have seen a significant number of
blackmail attacks popping up and a few
instances of conversation hijacking. In
comparison, until recently, they were
primarily seeing mostly scamming attacks.
As of March 17, the breakdown of
Coronavirus phishing attacks detected
by Barracuda Sentinel was as follows:
77% were scams, 22% were brand
impersonation and 1% were business
email compromise. They expect to see
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