Google blocks 18 million malicious coronavirus emails

SAN FRANCISCO: Google said it has stopped 18 million malicious emails each day in the past week related to the coronavirus pandemic as hackers hope to exploit an opportunity amid the outbreak.

The emails containing malware or phishing attempts are in addition to the 240 million spam messages related to COVID-19 that the company sees daily, Google said in a blog post. “The phishing attacks and scams we’re seeing use both fear and financial incentives to create urgency to try to prompt users to respond,” it said.

The emails impersonate government agencies such as the World Health Organisation to try to solicit fraudulent donations or install malware. Some target small businesses with scams related to economic stimulus packages, while others pose as companies to steal personal information from people working from home.

“Our [machine learning] models have evolved to understand and filter these threats, and we continue to block more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware from reaching our users,” Google said.

This activity is business as usual for hackers, who often use current events to trick their victims, whether apps that promise free access to movies or scams that scoop up tax refunds.

Google said it has worked with WHO on implementing DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) to make it more difficult for scammers to impersonate the global health agency’s domain and prevent legitimate emails from being caught in spam filters.

The company said in many cases the malware and phishing threats are not new but just existing malware campaigns updated to exploit fear and confusion around COVID-19.

Google recommends not downloading suspicious files and confirming the legitimacy of URLs before providing login information and taking its Security Checkup to protect your Google accounts.