PL Risk Blog

Phishing on the Rise According to Google

Written by Drew Smith | Jun 2, 2020 1:33:42 PM

In the chaos of COVID and the opening of businesses, the threat of malicious actors has only increased as Google has revealed that they sent over 1700 alerts on such activity in April alone.

Many of these attacks have been performed by so called state sponsored actors with many coming from Asia. According to Google, many of these phishing attempts are spoofing the World Health Organization. Using the crisis as an opening, these actors are more than likely using the public’s trust in the group to get visitors to open the emails that are supposedly them. These attackers are among several different groups attacking health-based organizations. These are not from them; they would not send you personalized emails.[1] They will use this ignorance to try and steal your personal information.

Many actors have taken advantage of the chaos. Do not open any emails especially from groups that won’t send such messages. Constant vigilance is key in this chaotic time online.

[1] https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/updates-about-government-backed-hacking-and-disinformation