Researchers at the security firm Proofpoint are tracking several fraud schemes leveraging COVID-19 vaccine-themed emails.
The schemes include business email compromise scams, messages with malicious attachments used to deliver malware and phishing emails designed to harvest credentials - including usernames and passwords for Microsoft Office 365, according to Proofpoint.
The Proofpoint report notes social engineering attacks leveraging vaccine themes have increased over the last two months as pharmaceutical companies have ramped up production (see:
"Many actors across most geographies are continuing to leverage COVID-19 social engineering, which is an extension of a trend we've observed since January 2020," says Sherrod DeGrippo, senior director of threat research and detection at Proofpoint