As the Covid-19 pandemic grips the world, the economy is faltering – and the underground economy is having a field day, with hackers around the globe taking advantage of the outbreak by accelerating their activities to spread their own infections.
It’s already been established that Coronavirus-related domains are 50% more likely to be malicious than other domains registered during the same period, and also higher than recent seasonal themes.
According to Check Point research, since the beginning of January as initial outbreaks were being reported, more than 16 000 new coronavirus-related domains were registered.
In the past three weeks alone (since the end of February 2020), the security company has seen a huge increase in the number of domains registered. The average number of new domains is almost 10 times more than the average number found in previous week; 0,8% of these domains were found to be malicious (93 websites); and another 19% were found to be suspicious (more than 2 200 websites).
In the last week, more than 6 000 new domains were registered – a 85% increase compared to the week before.
Immediately following the news of the Covid-19 outbreak, cyber criminals started using global media interest as a cover to spread their malicious activity. And now hackers are using pandemic as an opportunity to accelerate their business – like “Cyber Monday” or “Black Friday”, our researchers have found several “coronavirus specials”.
Special offers by different hackers promoting their “goods” – usually malicious malware or exploit tools – are being sold over the dark net under special offers with “COVID19” or “coronavirus” as discount codes.
Check Point has found a group of hackers that go by the name of SSHacker, that describe themselves as “dedicated to providing the best hacking services since 2005”, now offering the service of hacking into Facebook accounts at a discounted rate.
There are also many fake online “sales” offering premium goods at unbelievable prices. A seller that goes by the name of “True Mac” offers the “most-loved Mac” model – MacBook Air – in the fantastic price of $390 as a “corona special offer”.
Check Point cautions users to be wary of any website that offers “once-in-a-lifetime” deals no matter how authentic looking it is.
To avoid falling victim to online scams, the company offers these recommendations for safe online behaviour:
* Be cautious with emails and files received from unknown senders, especially if they are offering special deals or discounts.
* Don’t open unknown attachments or click on links in the emails.
* 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.