Cyber criminals are still using the Covid-19 topic for themselves, as a current Kaspersky analysis of anonymous data shows. From March 2020 to July 2021, the cybersecurity company's products blocked over a million attempts to visit pandemic-related phishing websites worldwide.
A total of 300 websites in Europe have been blocked in the study period since the beginning of the pandemic. Most of the attempts came from Germany: a third of the blocked websites were tried to be accessed from here.
Most of the hits from Germany
The most common methods used by cyber criminals to trick users into disclosing data include fake payment offers and discounted COVID-19 tests. For some time now, ads for fake QR codes and vaccination cards have been popular for restaurants and events.
The fraud activity related to the pandemic peaked in March 2021. Kaspersky researchers observed a slight decline in June before cybercriminals stepped up their efforts again. This month, Kaspersky products detected and blocked 14 percent more phishing websites related to the pandemic than in May.
Alexey Marchenko, Head of Content Filtering Methods Research at Kaspersky, comments on the situation as follows:
“Most of the pandemic-related frauds are targeted by cybercriminals targeting user data. They often use phishing for this: a user follows a link from an ad or email and arrives at a page where they are asked to enter personal or bank card details. Once they have this information, attackers can use it to steal money from the accounts. When users come across news related to the pandemic, they should always verify that the information is from an official source and never disclose their personal information on suspicious websites. "
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