Security News

Malicious COVID-19 online content - including racist content, disinformation and misinformation - thrives and spreads online by bypassing the moderation efforts of individual social media platforms. By mapping online hate clusters across six major social media platforms, researchers at the George Washington University show how malicious content exploits pathways between platforms, highlighting the need for social media companies to rethink and adjust their content moderation policies.

Cybercriminals continue to capitalize on the hysteria and worry caused by COVID-19, both in the physical sphere and digital ecosystem, exploiting the significant global unmet demand for vaccines. Over the past year, my firm has continuously monitored the surface, deep, and dark web for malicious activity related to COVID-19, witnessing a trend in the manipulation of the digital ecosystem for commercial gain or other malicious ends related to the topic of vaccines.

Over the past year, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organizations have rushed to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. How are cybercriminals threatening vaccine security?

An international survey of tech professionals from the Thales Group finds some bleak news for the current state of data security: the COVID-19 pandemic has upended cybersecurity norms, and security teams are struggling to keep up. The problems appear to be snowballing; lack of preparation has led to a scramble resulting in poor data protection practices, outdated security infrastructure not receiving needed overhauls, a jumble of new systems that only make matters worse and priority misalignment between security teams and leadership.

You've probably assumed, or at least hoped, when you've handed over data during the pandemic "For the greater good of all", that the company collecting it would treat it with more than the usual amount of care. The ICO noted that immediately below the abovementioned consent checkbox was wording that said, "To comply with Government Guidance during the Covid-19 pandemic, we are collecting your name and contact details. We will store these for 21 days only before deleting them in line with GDPR regulations. Your details will not be shared with any other company or organisation."

Bogus COVID-19 test results, fraudulent vaccination cards, and questionable vaccines are emerging a hot commodity on the dark web in what's the latest in a long list of cybercrimes capitalizing on the coronavirus pandemic. "As a result, illegal COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination records are in high demand on darknet marketplaces."

Telegram groups are being abused by fraudsters peddling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to the unvaccinated and anti-vaxxer communities, according to researchers. "When it became a bigger possibility of being able to travel, or when certain events began to require proof of vaccination, we started to see people posting vaccine cards for sale or soliciting vaccine cards for themselves," she told Threatpost in an interview.

As COVID-19 continues to ravage India, the nation's government has told it populace that 5G signals have nothing to do with the spread of the virus - if only because no 5G networks operate in India. After pointing out that the very notion is a nonsense, the department points out that India approved 5G trials on May 4th and they won't start for months.

Federal law enforcement in Maryland has shut down a fraudulent website targeting immigrant communities that claimed to be for a company developing a COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, working with Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, seized "Freevaccinecovax.org," "Which purported to be the website of an actual biotechnology company developing a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus," according to a release on the office's website posted earlier this week.

The Wyoming Department of Health said on Wednesday it accidentally posted COVID test results of state residents onto their public-facing storage buckets. As far as the breath alcohol tests go, the employee accidentally posted the results of 18,312 people - mostly from Wyoming but also from other states - who breathed into a tube for law enforcement in Wyoming as far back as April 19, 2012 and on up until Jan. 27, 2021.