Phishing Attacks Continue To Find Fuel In A Global Pandemic

Google issued a stark warning last week about the state of cybersecurity: Phishing attacks are on the rise and continue to take advantage of vulnerabilities resulting from the global pandemic.

The warning coincided with separate reports related to Google and cybersecurity. Security experts are warning that phishing attackers are using Google Firebase storage URLs in an effort to trick targets into harvesting sensitive data. Although the tactic appears to be new and relatively small in volume, reports in TechRadar said the strategy often involves a fake vendor payment form to infiltrate B2B payment workflows.

As the threat of B2B payments fraud persists, PYMNTS looks at the data behind some of the other latest cases of such digital scams.

15 percent of law firms have lost clients as a result of cybersecurity incidents, a new report published by BlueVoyant found, according to a press release. Its “Sector 17 – The State of Cybersecurity in the Legal Sector” analysis found that 100 percent of law firms surveyed around the globe had been targeted in a cyberattack, pointing to the industry’s $1 trillion market value, making it a prime target for data breaches, phishing attacks and other malicious online activity. Among a lengthy list of attack methods, ransomware and third-party breaches remain common tactics against law firms, the report revealed.

1,755 warnings were sent out by Google’s Threat Analysis Group to users targeted by phishing attacks, according to a blog post by the Threat Analysis Group, PYMNTS reported. The warnings signal a surge in hacking and phishing attempts, Google said, with cybercriminals using the coronavirus as a backdrop to their tactics. Some of the most at-risk targets include businesses in the financial services, consulting and healthcare arenas, the blog post noted.

$20,000 in fraudulent checks was allegedly written by one Cambodian individual posing as a construction business owner, reports in Khmer Times said. The accusations include claims that the individual sent the fraudulent checks to a sand dredging company to settle debts; when the recipient went to cash the checks, they reportedly bounced. The case highlights the fraud risks of continued use of paper checks in B2B payments.

$38,870 was allegedly stolen from a company through a fraudulent vendor scheme, reports in Herald.ie said recently. The case involves an 18-year-old in Ireland who is accused of posing as a legitimate supplier of medical ventilators and swindling one corporate buyer out of the funds — only the latest example of reported B2B payments fraud spiking in the context of the pandemic. According to the publication, unnamed sources said the individual may be a part of a wider global conspiracy to pose as legitimate medical suppliers.

$555 billion is the price tag small businesses could see as a result of data breaches, according to recent analysis by iomart. Taking into account the estimated 30.2 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S., researchers found that severe and catastrophic data breaches are on the rise, with the number of cases of compromised data jumping 273 percent in the first quarter of 2020. Nearly 40 percent of those incidents occurred in the U.S.