This Week In Cybersecurity

THE ZOOVID-19 SAGA

This week we have more updates to the Zoom and COVID-19 sagas (now coined Zoovid-19). More than 2,300 Zoom credentials are found in an underground forum. Sixteen malicious coronavirus mobile apps are discovered, a sextortion campaign takes on different themes, and phishers pretend to be President Trump.

Whether you celebrate Easter, or Passover, or just surviving another week of self-quarantined, social distancing, please stay safe, stay well, and check in with family, friends and neighbors.

Zoom Update:

More than 2,300 Zoom credentials found on an underground forum. Threatpost reports that a database of usernames and passwords that includes, “corporate accounts belonging to banks, consultancy companies, educational facilities, healthcare providers and software vendors. Some of the accounts included meeting IDs, names and host keys in addition to credentials.” The database was shared, but not sold. While the source is not known, the small number of accounts means that this was likely not a Zoom data breach. Attackers could use these credentials for spying, Zoombombing, credential stuffing or phishing attacks like business email compromise (BEC).

If you are still using Zoom, here are some security and privacy tips to better secure your video conferences. If you decided not to use Zoom, 10 alternatives are listed here.

Over the past month, we have seen a rapid increase in COVID-19 Coronavirus Attacks and this week is no exception.

Checkpoint researchers have discovered malicious coronavirus mobile apps. These 16 apps were found to be masquerading as legitimate coronavirus apps but contained a, “range of malware aimed at stealing users’ sensitive information or generating fraudulent revenues from premium-rate services.” None of the mobile apps were found in an official app store but were offered from coronavirus-themed domain names.



E-mail extortion campaign. For at least two years we have seen sextortion attacks take on different looks and approaches. Many of these attacks use sex as a theme, but threat actors have, “created different types of email extortion scams including one that pretends to be hitman contracts, bomb threats, CIA investigations, threats of installing ransomware, and just recently, threats to infect your family with the Coronavirus” reports BleepingComputer.

If you get one of these, don’t panic, just delete the email and get on with your life. If you want to know how they got your password, you can read more about sextortion attacks here.

COVID-19-themed phishing attack pretends to be from Trump

President Trump had originally hoped to have everyone back in their places of worship by this weekend but has since determined that it is not yet safe to do so. With Americans looking for updates on the status of COVID-19, attackers are again using this pandemic as a theme for phishing attacks. In this case, anti-phishing company, Inky, reports on two email phishing campaigns that were launched to impersonate email from President Trump.

The first email announced an extended quarantine and an extended IRS tax deadline.  The second email was designed to share “groundbreaking steps to slow the spread of the virus.” Inky reports, “In both cases, would-be victims were taken to a website that is actually a replica of an actual government site.  Readers were encouraged to open a special report with details, but what they got instead was a heavy dose of dangerous malware loaded to their computer.”

Tip of the Week

Privacy Filters

Privacy filters keep prying eyes off of your screen when you’re forced to work on a computer around other people. This is especially useful on airplanes and in coffee shops or other public areas. It’s basically a thin piece of removable plastic that you attach to your computer screen, that limits the viewing angle to the point where someone sitting next to you cannot see what’s on your screen at all. However, someone in the seat behind you may be able to see over your shoulder, so be aware of your surroundings.

I have tired a few of these over the years and all of them have worked quite well. These days, I seem to lean toward the 3M Privacy Filters. I like the Gold version but I’m very interested in the anti-glare model.

This is a great product for travel so maybe get one now while you have a lot of time to online-shop. And, while you’re working from home, it will keep that pesky cat from spying your password from across the room!

Picture of the Week