Cybercriminals Continuing To Exploit Coronavirus With Malicious Domains: Check Point

Since January 2020, based on an updated Check Point Threat Intelligence report, “there have been over 4,000 coronavirus-related domains registered globally. Out of these websites, 3% were found to be malicious and an additional 5% are suspicious. Coronavirus- related domains are 50% more likely to be malicious than other domains registered at the same period, and also higher than recent seasonal themes such as Valentine’s day.”

The numbers compiled by Check Point for the last 2 weeks show that while the number of coronavirus-related domain names registered for the last 2 weeks (weeks commencing 17 and 24 February) are around 400 each week, it’s down from a peak of around 650 to 1,000 for the previous 3 weeks.

Check Point’s “Global
Threat Index for January 2020 shows cyber-criminals are exploiting interest
in the global epidemic to spread malicious activity, with several spam
campaigns relating to the outbreak of the virus.”

Many of these domains, Check Point note in their blog post, “will
probably be used for phishing attempts. As of now, Check Point already spotted
and protects online users from many websites known to be related to malicious
activities that lure the victims to their websites with discussions around the
virus, as well as from scam websites that claim to sell face masks, vaccines,
and home tests that can detect the virus.”