‘Hack-for-hire’ firms, many of them based in India, are creating accounts spoofing the World Health Organization (WHO) and targeting business leaders in financial services, consulting, and healthcare corporations in the U.S., the U.K. and Bahrain among other countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Google. Also read: Google sees 18 mn COVID-19-linked malware, phishing emails dailyThe tech giant noted that numerous coronavirus-themed attacks have been discovered and confirmed by its teams as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people’s lives and businesses across the world. The pandemic has taken centre stage in people’s everyday lives, in the international news media, and in the world of government-backed hacking,” the blog said. It had stated that cybercrooks are using COVID-19 to make ransomware and phishing attacks, and over 9,000 coronavirus-themed attacks were noticed in India between February 2 and May 2. About 19 million such attacks were noted in Asia.

Source: The Hindu May 31, 2020 11:35 UTC