Researchers are warning of a new phishing attack that purports to send coronavirus training resources to employees who are returning to the workplace, as COVID-19 lockdowns lift. The recent phishing campaign leverages novel training programs that are required for employees in the workplace to comply with coronavirus regulations. The campaign, targeting Office 365 users, sends an email that includes a link to register to the training: “COVID-19 Training for Employees: A Certificate for Health Workplaces.” Instead of a legitimate sign-up page, however, it instead directs users to a malicious link, where they are asked to input their credentials (at the moment that link is inactive), according to a new report from Check Point Research.
Ever since COVID-19 broke, we\’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 themed phishing attacks. This new attack, unfortunately, indicates that this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
It is vital that organisations continually keep employees abreast of what the ongoing situation is, and how to expect communication. They should be made aware of these kinds of threats that exist, how to spot them, and how to quickly and easily report any suspicious emails, or report where someone may have downloaded potentially malicious software or provided their credentials. From a technical perspective, organisations should look to deploy preventative measures such as MFA to protect accounts even if credentials are compromised, and to have detection and response controls in place.