Just When You Thought It Was Safe – COVID-19 Phishing is Back for an Encore
COVID-19 quickly rose to the top of Google’s list of the biggest phishing topics in history in the spring of 2020. After a monster increase of more than 600% in phishing in Q2 2020, the tsunami of phishing email around the global pandemic seemed to be slowing down as the topic became less sensational.
But the fall of 2020 is shaping up to be the return of the COVID-19 phishing scam. As disease rates climb in some countries and COVID-19’s second wave starts making its way through the world, cybercriminals are looking for ways to get some replay value out of their best pandemic-themed phishing tricks.
In a study of user reactions to cybersecurity dangers like phishing lures, researchers at Verizon discovered that even with all of the hype surrounding COVID-19 scams, users are three times more likely to click on a phishing link and then enter their credentials than they were before the pandemic, and thousands of new COVID-19 scam pages are still being created every day.
Don’t let cybercriminals get their hooks in you. Learn how to spot and stop today’s biggest security threat: phishing.
Our long COVID-19 phishing nightmare isn’t even close to over. Fresh warnings about COVID-19 relief scams and pandemic-related phishing emails from entities like the FBI serve as fresh warnings that there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the audacity of cybercriminals in the time of COVID – 19. The UK’s National Computer Security Center (NCSC) recently announced that it had taken down about 2,000 scams in just one month.
That means it’s time to remind your clients about the value of security awareness training, especially phishing resistance training. Companies that engage in regular cybersecurity awareness training have 70% fewer cybersecurity incidents – as long as that training is regularly updated. Staffers hold on to what they learned in training for about 4 months at most, so regularly updating training is a must.
BullPhish ID provides a robust training solution that’s good for you and your clients. With 4 new plug-and-play phishing simulation kits added every month, including COVID-19 threats, your clients will have plenty of material to use for their training campaigns – and you’ll have a nice boost to your MRR when they keep using our easy, cost-effective solution.
Everyone’s trying to save money in a tight economy, but security awareness training isn’t the place to make cuts in the IT budget. A small up-front investment in training with a dynamic solution like BullPhish ID pays huge dividends in improved overall cybersecurity when a phishing email lands in an employee inbox and gets deleted instead of opened, saving a fortune.
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