Google blocks 18 million COVID-19 malware emails daily. Here’s how to browse safely
Google is warning about hackers who are capitalizing on people’s fears during the coronavirus pandemic.
The technology giant said its email service, Gmail, is blocking 18 million malware and phishing emails per day related to coronavirus. It’s also filtering 240 million COVID-19 emails to your spam folder.
While Gmail is blocking most of the harmful emails, according to Google, it is letting people know how they can better protect themselves on the internet.
“The phishing attacks and scams we’re seeing use both fear and financial incentives to create urgency to try to prompt users to respond,” Google announced Thursday.
Attacks or scams mentioned by Google include impersonating organizations like the World Health Organization to solicit fraudulent donations or distribute malware; impersonating government institutions in relation to the stimulus packages; and taking advantage of work-from-home employees.
Scammers have led to a large increase in complaints to the Federal Trade Commission. The government organization said it had 7,800 coronavirus-related reports since the beginning of 2020 and consumers have lost $4.77 million.
Many of the recent threats seen on Gmail are not new, but are rather “exiting malware campaigns that have simply been updated to exploit the heightened attention on COVID-19,” the company said.
Google recommends users to complete a security checkup, avoid downloading files you don’t recognize, check the integrity of URLs before clicking a link and report phishing emails.
There are some reasons for the increased hacking during the pandemic, Lukasz Olejnik PhD., an independent cybersecurity researcher, told the New York Post Post
“What makes this even more complicated is that today more and more people are expected to make extraordinary actions — like work from home, use non-standard software or procedures — on an ordinary basis,” he told the Post. “This is also part of the reason why the risk goes up. Many usual assumptions were simply thrown out of the window.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 7:20 AM with the headline "Google blocks 18 million COVID-19 malware emails daily. Here’s how to browse safely."