Bleeping Computer
Google says that the malware scanners built within the Gmail free email service blocked around 18 million phishing and malware emails using COVID-19 lures within the last week.
“Every day, Gmail blocks more than 100 million phishing emails,” Gmail Security PM Neil Kumaran and G Suite & GCP Lead Security PM Sam Lugani explain.
“During the last week, we saw 18 million daily malware and phishing emails related to COVID-19. This is in addition to more than 240 million COVID-related daily spam messages.”
A multitude of lures and baits
In all, Gmail’s ML models now are sufficiently advanced to detect and block enough of such attacks that the malware scanners are capable of blocking over 99.9% of all spam, phishing, and malware sent to Gmail users.
Attackers behind these phishing campaigns that take advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak have been using both financial and fear-inducing baits to make their targets respond to their requests.