Google Reports 18 Million Daily COVID-19 Related Malware, Phishing Emails Per Day

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Google Reports 18 Million Daily COVID-19 Related Malware, Phishing Emails Per Day

By CircleID Reporter
April 17, 2020, 2:20 am PDT Views: 11,208 Add Comment

A sample email provided by Google showing increased phishing attempts of employees operating in a work-from-home setting.

During the last week, Google says it has been seeing 18 million malware and phishing emails related to COVID-19 daily. This, the company reported today, “is in addition to more than 240 million COVID-related daily spam messages.” The phishing attacks and scams are using fear and financial incentives to create urgency tactics, says Google. Some examples include:

Impersonating authoritative government organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) to solicit fraudulent donations or distribute malware.
Increased phishing attempts of employees operating in a work-from-home setting.
Capitalizing on government stimulus packages and imitates government institutions to phish small businesses.
Organizations impacted by stay-at-home orders.

Google says it has put proactive monitoring in place for COVID-19-related malware and phishing across all its systems. “In many cases, these threats are not new—rather, they’re existing malware campaigns that have simply been updated to exploit the heightened attention on COVID-19.”

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By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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