Cybercriminals dominate anti-Corona donations in Germany and Britain

The world is currently facing a sixth violent security attack, in which cyber criminals are taking advantage of the new “Corona” epidemic to inflict their victims. This attack, which began on April 11, focuses on tracking down the funds for donations to fight the Corona epidemic, and the funds for aid and assistance provided by governments to individuals and institutions affected by the epidemic.

The attack has so far resulted in the theft of between 31.5 million and 100 million euros in Germany, and about four million pounds in Britain, while the attacks inside the United States focused on chasing companies working in the field of producing anti-virus vaccines, increasing the number of these attacks by 400 % Over the past week, according to FBI estimates.

New attack

Dozens of technology sites dealt with news of the new attack, yesterday, and zdnet.com analysts published an analysis about this attack, warning that it is still underway, and is the sixth violent attack by Internet hackers since February 2020, under the slogan "Corona", pointing to Until the previous attacks took place on February 12, March 13, March 19, March 31 and April 6, and are carried out through phishing tools, such as phishing e-mails and fake sites, and follow the method of "random scanning", that is, directing the attack randomly via the Internet , To clear all email addresses and network devices they encounter.

FBI

Tonya Ugoritz, deputy assistant director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that the office monitored a significant increase in the reports resulting from this attack. After receiving 1,000 reports a day about theft and phishing attacks using phishing methods, the number rose during this attack to reach 4000 reports daily. She added that there were some expectations that cyber criminals may mitigate their attacks during the epidemic, as humans are also, but the opposite happened, and intensified their attacks, and they in the current attack manage an integrated process, using everything, from the creation of fraudulent Internet domains, to Fake websites and emails serve as booby traps, create fake charities, work in fundraising to combat the epidemic, complicated use of tracking tools, break down electronic payment security, and bank account tampering.

«North Rhine-Westphalia»

Analysts reported that, during the past two days, the pirates succeeded in seizing the funds of the North Rhine-Westphalia district in western Germany, as they created scams from an official website created by the Ministry of Economic Affairs for northwestern Germany, to distribute financial assistance to those affected by the « Corona », the fake website distributed links using email campaigns, attracted users to the sites, also collected details from the local population, and then submitted requests for government assistance on behalf of real users, after replacing the bank account used to transfer the money.

According to preliminary estimates, the losses resulting from this process ranged between 31.5 million and 100 million euros, as it was found that the provincial government had received 380 thousand requests for government assistance, out of which 360 thousand requests were executed, including between 3500 and 4000 fraudulent requests, as it ranged Payments between 9,000 and 25,000 euros.

Scam in Britain

In Britain, the "Action Frode", which specializes in information security, tracking and monitoring of phishing attacks, said that it detected phishing operations on the ninth of April, because of it it lost 641 victims, million and 820 thousand pounds sterling. Also, during the period from 11 to 14 April this year, 23 new fraud attempts were detected, and on April 17, 862 victims lost two million and 120 thousand pounds in frauds that exploit the Corona epidemic, to approx the total loot in these operations alone, about four million pounds .

Governments are involved

Deputy Assistant Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tonya Ojoritz, confirmed that the office monitored activities indicating that the current attack includes targeting operations by government-backed pirate groups, and focuses only on pursuing the health care sector and drug companies working in the development of anti-HIV vaccines, And in organizing fake activities to buy and sell fake medical supplies, such as masks and sterilization equipment, by attacking the supply and supply chains of health care institutions.