{"id":179714,"date":"2020-11-30T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ntegrait.com\/beware-covid-19-vaccine-news-may-lead-to-new-wave-of-phishing\/"},"modified":"2020-11-30T19:15:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T00:15:00","slug":"beware-covid-19-vaccine-news-may-lead-to-new-wave-of-phishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ntegrait.com\/beware-covid-19-vaccine-news-may-lead-to-new-wave-of-phishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware: COVID-19 Vaccine News May Lead to New Wave of Phishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 Vaccine Related Phishing and How You Can Protect Your Organization<\/h2>\n

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives across the globe and infection rates continue to soar, scientists are continually looking for a solution to end the world\u2019s suffering. In the past weeks, vaccine manufacturers, such as Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, have published encouraging results from the last stages of their vaccine trials, giving the world a glimpse of hope.<\/p>\n

However, with all these vaccines that have been developed and those in their final stages, none has been officially released for mass consumption. As the population continues to get overwhelmed with pandemic fatigue and scientists get closer to developing a real vaccine, cybercriminals are now using the developed vaccines as a ploy in their extortion activities.<\/p>\n

\"COVID<\/p>\n

What are phishing emails?<\/h3>\n

Phishing is a form of social engineering often used by cybercriminals to trick their targets into providing them with their personal information and account data. Once this information is obtained, these malicious actors use the targets\u2019 credentials or install malware into their systems to obtain data. Phishing is carried out via text messages, instant messages, social media messaging platforms, phone calls, or email. However, phishing emails are the most common. The recipient of the email is usually tricked into clicking on a malicious link, which may lead to the installation of malware that may obtain sensitive information or freeze the recipient\u2019s system as a way to deny services as part of a cyberattack.<\/p>\n

At the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, these emails came in different forms with luring subject lines such as:<\/p>\n