Vaccine passports and travel plans race up Covid threat charts
As the UK marks a significant step out of lockdown on 12 April with the further relaxation of restrictions, cyber criminals exploiting the pandemic are concentrating their efforts on exploiting interest in vaccine passports and the possibility of some international leisure travel.
Over the past 13 months, the cyber criminal underground has relentlessly taken advantage of Covid-19 in its targeting of both business and consumers through phishing and domain spoofing attacks. Popular lures have included the initial outbreak and government support programmes, later pivoting to vaccines. But now, as the pathway out of the pandemic becomes clearer, their efforts are turning to exploit the hoped-for return to normality.
This is according to researchers working at Webroot, who have released new statistics drawn from the firm’s real-time anti-phishing protection service from 1 January 2021 through 29 March, which show a 93% increase in malicious Covid-19-related domains incorporating the word “travel”.
