The email in Italian was about important information about the virus, while the email in Portuguese discussed a supposed vaccine for COVID-19.ĬOVID-19 related email spam in Portuguese There were also other samples detected in foreign languages such as Italian and Portuguese. The email is assumed to come from Japan, and included details written in Japanese (masked in the screenshot).ĬOVID-19 related email spam about a shipping postponement The attachment, supposedly containing the details of the new shipping schedule, bears malware. One email informed about shipping postponement. Many of the spam emails were related to shipping transactions, either postponement due to the spread of the disease or one that provides a shipping update. It contained recommendations on how to prevent infection and came with an attachment that supposedly contains the latest updates on COVID-19 but actually carried malware.ĬOVID-19 related email spam purportedly from the Ministry of Health One of the samples used the email subject “Corona Virus Latest Updates” and claimed to come from the Ministry of Health. Like most email spam attacks, they also include malicious attachments. Many of the emails, purportedly from official organizations, contain updates and recommendations connected to the disease. Trend Micro researchers also acquired email samples sent to and received from all over the globe, including countries such as the U.S., Japan, Russia, and China. Text from scam email asking for aid for the World Health Organization They ask for aid and provide a cryptocurrency wallet where people can donate. The emails were sent by a group claiming to be “COVID19Fund,” which is supposedly associated with legitimate health organizations. We also have detected emails claiming to be relief or health organizations asking for donations in bitcoin. The email below uses the ongoing health crisis to push for urgent action. BEC schemes usually work by tricking targets into transferring money to a criminal posing as someone from within the same company. Now there are ongoing business email compromise (BEC) scams that use the disease as a hook. Trend Micro Research found coronavirus-related emails with malicious attachments sent to users as early as February 2020. As users adapt to new methods of working, they should be wary of cybercriminals using popular online tools, sharing software, and file attachments in their scams. Many aspects of daily work, from meetings to presentations and collaborative tasks, have moved online because of quarantine restrictions affecting offices across the globe. Threat actors are aware of what users click on and use the most obvious bait to make their schemes more effective. Many people are out of work due to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, and are eager to find job openings. Instead of using Covid-19 as the subject, malicious actors are using titles related to job opportunities to trick users into opening spam mail. Headers used in phishing emails have also changed. In late October, security firm MalwareBytes Lab found ransomware hidden in a fake health survey targeting staff at the University of British Columbia (UBC). For example, many schools required more information about students’ health as part of their safety protocols for combating the virus. This spike in malicious activity coincided with a shift in social engineering tactics - instead of using Covid-19 information to trick users, criminals used coronavirus-related school updates and job listings. Update as of November 11Ĭovid-19 still filled the headlines in the third quarter of 2020, and Trend Micro’s monitoring showed that cyberthreats that used the virus as a lure increased exponentially in September. The mention of current events for malicious attacks is nothing new for threat actors, who time and again use the timeliness of hot topics, occasions, and popular personalities in their social engineering strategies. This report also includes detections from other researchers. As the number of those afflicted continue to surge by thousands, campaigns that use the disease as a lure likewise increase. Trend Micro researchers are periodically sourcing for samples on COVID-19 related malicious campaigns. Former Title: Coronavirus Used in Spam, Malware File Names, and Malicious DomainsĬOVID-19 is being used in a variety of malicious campaigns including email spam, BEC, malware, ransomware, and malicious domains. Latest update on November 11, 2020. Originally published on March 06, 2020.
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