COVID-19: A new opportunity for hackers.

As it is often said, in a time of crisis, you have some people whining while others find opportunities and “hackers” understand that. For some time now there has been misinformation circulating to exploit people’s concern about the virus that is ravaging. They use cunning and social engineering to get confidential information, credit card numbers and so on. In this article, I will share with you the different scenarios I have been personally exposed to in order to prevent you from falling into the trap.

1- By Text message:

Recently there have been so-called Red Cross text messages, circulating saying that they have set up a system to have free masks delivered to your home. In the link included in the message, the person asks you to enter your banking information to simply pay for the delivery. You might as well know that if you do so, your account could be emptied right away. It may seem trivial to some of you, but I assure you that some people fall into this trap. The message I’m referring to looks like this:

There is an intervention that was made by Radio Canada to raise public awareness on this issue.

2- By Email:

There are also e-mails that are circulating, including one supposedly from the Public Health Agency of Canada. This is a fake email in which “the agency” offers to keep you informed about the current pandemic. When you click on it, a small piece of software will be downloaded to your computer or cell phone. The software I discovered is a simple keylogger. It’s a software that records keystrokes you type on your computer and emails them to the person who originally sent the link.

The email I received looks like this:

Once you click on the link, it opens unto a blank page but in the background, a process has been created.

I can reassure you, however, that the program in question is not persistent, which means that it does not survive indefinitely. One more reason to think that people without morals who do this are just apprentices who don’t know what to do with their time 😒 

However, it is best not to take any risks and contact the appropriate authorities if you are a victim.

3- Messages from the Government of Canada:

 Right after the Prime Minister of Canada made the announcement that he was going to release money to help workers and entrepreneurs in need, you have people who took advantage of that and started texting everyone. In these messages, they encourage everyone to fill out a form to get this compensation. The form is extremely long and very professional, which may suggest that it is legitimate. In fact, here is an excerpt from the form:

As you can see, the information requested is quite precise and they even ask for your account number in order to send you the funds 😅 . They are not afraid of anything. If you have clicked on such email, it would be better to notify the authorities because there are a lot of things that can be done with this kind of data about someone.

Here are the messages:

These are some examples of a phishing attack, and it’s quite easy to prevent it. Avoid clicking on anything and stop sharing everything you see on your social media. If you are not sure of the source of a piece of information, an email or a text message, don’t share it because when you do, you are simply helping these people to widen their scope of attack.

If you have been a victim of fraud, report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center.