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Hackers seek to exploit Coronavirus economic stimulus payments for their scams: Check Point researchers

April 2020 by Check Point

Check Point Research has revealed how hackers are exploiting the availability of coronavirus economic stimulus and relief payments to try and steal users’ personal data and commit fraud or payment theft. Researchers have also seen a huge increase in the number of Covid-19 related cyber-attacks to an average of 14,000 a day, which is six times the average number of daily attacks compared to the month of March. During the week 7 – 14 April, the average number of daily attacks increased sharply to 20,000. 94% of these are phishing attacks.

Researchers found that since January, a variety of domains related to coronavirus-related stimulus or relief packages have been registered globally. A total of 4,305 domains relating to new stimulus/relief packages have been registered:

• In March 2020 – a total of 2081 new domains were registered (38 malicious; 583 suspicious)
• In the first week of April - 473 were registered (18 malicious, 73 suspicious)
• There was a major increase in the week of March 16 when the U.S. government proposed the $2 trillion stimulus package to taxpayers. The number of new domains registered that week was 3.5 times higher compared to the average of previous weeks

These scam websites use the news of the coronavirus (Covid-19) financial incentives, and fears about Coronavirus to try and trick people into using the websites or clicking on links, enabling the hackers to harvest data.

Coronavirus related cyber-attacks

Check Point Research also reported that 94% of coronavirus-related attacks during the past 2 weeks were phishing attacks, while 3% were mobile attacks (either via dedicated mobile malware or via malicious activity carried out on a mobile device). Researchers have also seen a huge increase in the number of attacks, to an average of 14,000 a day, which is six times the average number of daily attacks when compared to the previous two weeks. And over the week from 7 – 14 April, the average number of daily attacks increased sharply to 20,000.

Coronavirus-related malicious domains

As previously reported, since mid-February researchers have seen an escalation in the number of coronavirus-related domains being registered. In the past two weeks (since our last update on April 2), almost 17,000 new coronavirus-related domains had been registered. 2% of those domains were found to be malicious, and another 21% suspicious. In all, there have been 68,000 coronavirus-related domains registered since the beginning of the outbreak in January 2020.

Staying protected against phishing attacks

Phishing is the starting point for the majority of cyber-attacks. To stay safe, remember these golden rules:
1. Beware of lookalike domains, spelling errors in emails or websites, and unfamiliar email senders.
2. Be cautious with files received via email from unknown senders, especially if they prompt for a certain action you would not usually do.
3. Ensure you are ordering goods from an authentic source. One way to do this is NOT to click on promotional links in emails, and instead, Google your desired retailer and click the link from the Google results page.
4. Beware of “special” offers. “An exclusive cure for coronavirus for $150” is usually not a reliable or trustworthy purchase opportunity. At this point of time there is no cure for the coronavirus and even if there was, it definitely would not be offered to you via an email.
5. Make sure you do not reuse passwords between different applications and accounts.


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