Security News
Security experts are poring over thousands of new Coronavirus-themed domain names registered each day, but this often manual effort struggles to keep pace with the flood of domains invoking the virus to promote malware and phishing sites, as well as non-existent healthcare products and charities. Milwaukee-based Hold Security has been publishing daily and weekly lists of all COVID-19 related domain registrations.
Contact tracing has been an often-used method of trying to curb the spread of an infectious disease by finding the people who have contracted it. As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, Apple and Google have come up with a plan to more easily implement contact tracing by building the necessary technology into their respective operating systems.
Cybercriminals are deploying COVID-19-themed gift card scams, wire transfer scams, and payroll scams aimed at organizations and their employees, according to security provider Trustwave. Phishing emails are a favorite tactic used by scammers to try to convince people to share account credentials, financial information, and other private data.
As hospitals around the world are struggling to respond to the coronavirus crisis, cybercriminals-with no conscience and empathy-are continuously targeting healthcare organizations, research facilities, and other governmental organizations with ransomware and malicious information stealers. While the security firm didn't name the latest victims, it said a Canadian government healthcare organization and a Canadian medical research university both suffered ransomware attacks, as criminal groups seek to exploit the crisis for financial gain.
Fraud related to the coronavirus has cost Americans $13m and so far counting, according to the US government. While authorities have been warning for weeks of various scams and fraud operations based on the coronavirus pandemic, the FTC's report is one of the few to put a dollar amount on the damage being done by criminals.
Cybercriminals aren't sparing medical professionals, hospitals and healthcare orgs on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic when it comes to cyberattacks, ransomware attacks and malware. Researchers have shed light on two recently uncovered malware campaigns: one targeting a Canadian government healthcare organization and a Canadian medical research university, and the other hitting medical organizations and medical research facilities worldwide.
When is ICANN going to do something about the explosion of scammy domains spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic? We can't, the overseers of the internet said last Tuesday, throwing its hands in the air and telling domain registrars that they can - and should.
The Coronavirus quarantine introduces an extreme challenge for IT and Security teams to maintain secure environments during the mass transition of employees working remotely and the surge in cyberattacks targeting its inherent security weaknesses. In a webinar for security service providers taking place on April 22nd, a leading MSSP will share how they conquer and overcome the coronavirus quarantine challenges to grow their customer base.
In an effort to fend off the coronavirus while getting economies restarted, the world has hit on the same idea: a smartphone app that alerts people if they have been close to someone who has the virus. Not all these apps work in the same way however and with experts saying that to be effective they would have to be used by at least 60 per cent of the population, it is critical that whatever approach is taken is acceptable to a vast majority of the population.
Despite the companies' insistence that privacy will be "Of utmost importance," some in the security space remain wary of data privacy concerns around the newly announced technology. Many such coronavirus tracking apps are already available, such as COVID Symptom Tracker and Private Kit SafePaths.