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COVID-19 Phishing Templates Copy Government Websites

May 26, 2020 by Brent Goedel
Cyber Security

The following information comes from our partners at Fortinet:

Threat actors heavily use COVID-19 themed phishing templates. Their main target are official government sites and trusted non-governmental organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and multiple governments. The majority of the COVID-19 phishing campaigns focus on gathering user information. These email threats carry the intent of delivering malware to the system, which is mostly info stealers, ransomware, and RATs. The goal for the WHO themed phishing pages is to steal victims’ credentials so they can get access to information about COVID-19 safety measures. The CDC phishing pages target the victim’s email address and password so they can receive a “Vaccine ID.” The impersonated IRS website offers the visitors financial aid after they enter their personal information. The malicious template for Canada’s government presents the visitors with the same experience as the official one, which supports English and French. Most of the malicious website looks very similar to their original one, and it’s easy to get tricked if you are not careful.

Copeland Buhl, along with our security partners, can help with prevention of these emails or training of users on how to look for the fake emails. Reach out to Brent Goedel for more information brent_goedel@copelandbuhl.com or 952-476-7142.