Pandemic-related phishing grew in June

Kaspersky products detected and blocked 14 per cent more pandemic-related phishing websites in June than they did in May.

Hyderabad: While the pandemic has made us hooked onto our gadgets, it has also given a push to cyber-criminals. Various fake payments offers and discounted Covid-19 tests, phishing ads for fake QR codes and vaccination certificates for restaurants and public events are some of the popular schemes being used by cyber-criminals.

Kaspersky products detected and blocked 14 per cent more pandemic-related phishing websites in June than they did in May. Similarly, the researchers also identified more than 5,000 pandemic-related phishing websites since the beginning of the pandemic. From March 2020 to July 2021, the global cybersecurity company prevented over a million user attempts to visit these sites.

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“Pandemic-related scamming activity peaked in March 2021. Kaspersky researchers observed a slight decline in June, before cybercriminals intensified their efforts,” the company stated.

“In most pandemic-related fraud, cybercriminals aim to obtain user data. Phishing is often used for this: a user follows a link from an ad or email and gets to a page where they are asked to enter personal information and bank card details. Once they have this information, attackers can use it to steal money from a target’s accounts. If you see a message about the pandemic, we recommend you always double-check the information is from an official source and never give your personal data to suspicious sites,” says Alexey Marchenko, head of content filtering methods development at Kaspersky.

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