In March, the number of attacks increased by 140% compared to the monthly average recorded by ISH. The company's team also conducted a survey to find out how many new threats linked to the terms "coronavirus" and "COVID-19″ had been created. In a period of just 48 hours, more than 1,600 new malicious sites and programs were identified. In those same two days, 100 new domains were also found that would be used for fraud and data theft, and 50 new malware.

The most common attacks involved requests for financial donations to help supposed coronavirus victims. Often, information such as patients' names and where they lived were mentioned to convince the victims that the fundraiser was real. Techniques like this are linked to spear-phishing, which is the fraudulent practice of sending e-mails to induce a person to reveal confidential data, either through a link or a virus installed on the computer. In the case of the coronavirus attacks, many of the messages used hospital names, making the sender reliable and removing any suspicion.

Whenever there is an issue in evidence, or a moment when people are more fragile, as happened with the pandemic, countless types of threats linked to the topic of the moment arise.

There were also calls, again in the name of health institutions, for people to register on a website and thus participate in a large donation of alcohol gel. The criminals also took advantage of the bill that released a R$ 600 aid payment for informal workers, nicknamed "coronavoucher", and shared links by WhatsApp promising to distribute the money easily. Those who clicked ended up handing over all the data saved on their mobile phones. In addition, a scam circulated that featured a video of the construction of a Chinese hospital for the treatment of COVID-19. But when clicking to watch it, the user downloaded a computer virus.

This behaviour by cybercriminals is not new. Whenever there is an issue in evidence, or a moment when people are more fragile, as happened in the pandemic, there are countless types of threats linked to the topic of the time. The scams often work because, contrary to what some people believe, hackers are not only good at finding flaws in systems. They also master ways to manipulate people.

As effective as security software is at keeping your data confidential and away from hackers, is the good old advice: if it's too good to be true, there's a good chance it really isn't.

The best way to protect yourself isn't new, either. As effective as security software is at keeping your data private and away from hackers, is the good old advice: if it's too good to be true, there's a good chance it really isn't.

By Dirceu Lippi