Situational Awareness – Coronavirus Scam Highlights

As pandemic operations become the new normal, WaterISAC continues to see cyber activity related to the coronavirus, though cybercriminals are shifting targets on a weekly basis. This week’s published trends largely involve impersonating government agencies to take advantage of institutional trust during a disaster. The Federal Trade Commission has warned of contact tracing text message scams where threat actors use the fear the victim might have come in contact with an infected person to get them to click on a dangerous link. Similarly, various researchers have identified multiple email spam campaigns impersonating the U.S. Treasury Department to get victims to download a file. On the side of defenders, Google and Apple have partnered to offer a contact tracing API for public health agencies to use when creating their mobile apps, with multiple states and 22 other countries already participating in the program.