Perth firm battles rising virus scams

List of 100,000 suspect sites made available for free

Cyber criminals trying to capitalise on coronavirus have been exposed by a Tayside tech firm.

More than 100,000 online scams were revealed by Perth-based M3 Networks.

The company discovered masses of suspect website addresses linked to Covid-19-themed phishing emails.

And they have made the list available for free so they can be blocked by companies.

The most common trick is emailing links to websites that ask people to buy goods that do not exist.

At other times, the sites instal malicious code on to people’s machines that can encrypt data and steal passwords.

It comes as the volume of cyber attacks on British businesses soared by almost a third in the first three months of the year.

A Perth cyber security firm has exposed more than 100,000 online scams by criminals looking to exploit the Covid-19 pandemic.

M3 Networks said there had been a huge increase in coronavirusthemed phishing attacks, where fraudulent emails are sent in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Over the past five weeks the tech firm has identified 100,000 suspect website addresses linked to Covid-19 phishing emails.

M3 has made the list of domain addresses available for free so they can be blocked by companies.

Managing director Mark Riddell said: “Cyber criminals are very quick to change tactics and target the current hot topic, whether that be the Olympic Games or World Cup, the death of a famous celebrity or a global health crisis.

“Overall we don’t see that cyber attacks in general have increased, but there has been a massive shift towards Covid-19-themed attacks.

“We are publishing weekly email blacklists containing lists of domains that have been identified in phishing attacks and other online scams.”

Mr Riddell said email was the most successful method, accounting for more than 90% of cyber attacks.

Sometimes the links can lead to websites that ask people to purchase goods that don’t exist. At other times the websites install malicious code on to people’s machines that can encrypt data or steal passwords.

The volume of Covid-19 email scams has increased each month, accounting for 6% of email traffic in May.

He said the dangers had been heightened by more people working from home throughout the pandemic.

“In an office environment staff can easily ask a colleague for a second opinion if they’re not sure if an email is genuine, but with people working from home they don’t have that and so are much more likely to take the risk