This year, Covid-19 took over the real world as well as the cyberworld
2020 has been defined by the Covid-19 virus affecting the entire world, both online and offline. Our team has observed cybercriminals using the pandemic to their advantage, spreading scams and phishing attacks to exploit people’s weaknesses during trying times.
Ransomware attacks continued to thrive this year, pitilessly attacking medical institutions. Certain types of threats — including stalkerware and adware — flourished due to people being forced into lockdown and likely spending more time on their mobile devices. Cybercriminals began to promote mobile adware more heavily to younger audiences via popular social platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Covid-19 fakes and scams
In addition to fake news, Covid-19-related fake shops and malware made their rounds in 2020. A number of scams circulated, designed to take advantage of people searching for information around the virus, and associated topics such as supplies of face masks and ventilators. Avast identified malvertising campaigns being adapted to the situation, fake shops and products like cures and medication for the virus being “sold” online, the World Health Organization's name and logo being exploited to deceive people into inadvertently downloading malware in messages containing coronavirus and other related terms in malicious files spreading via email, SMS, and other malware. Also, via its mobile threat intelligence platform, apklab.io, Avast tracked more than 600 malicious apps including mobile banking trojans and spyware, posing as apps that offered some sort of a Covid-19-related service.
Fake news spread during the pandemic, including fake news alleging that Bill Gates created or financed the creation of Covid-1 ..
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