The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19
Abstract The COVID‐19 pandemic coincided with an equally‐threatening scamdemic: a global epidemic of scams and frauds. The unprecedented cybersecurity concerns emerged during the pandemic sparked a torrent of research to investigate cyber‐attacks and to propose solutions and countermeasures. Within...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Hindawi-IET
2022-09-01
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| Series: | IET Information Security |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1049/ise2.12073 |
| _version_ | 1827079789968621568 |
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| author | Ali F. Al‐Qahtani Stefano Cresci |
| author_facet | Ali F. Al‐Qahtani Stefano Cresci |
| author_sort | Ali F. Al‐Qahtani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The COVID‐19 pandemic coincided with an equally‐threatening scamdemic: a global epidemic of scams and frauds. The unprecedented cybersecurity concerns emerged during the pandemic sparked a torrent of research to investigate cyber‐attacks and to propose solutions and countermeasures. Within the scamdemic, phishing was by far the most frequent type of attack. This survey paper reviews, summarises, compares and critically discusses 54 scientific studies and many reports by governmental bodies, security firms and the grey literature that investigated phishing attacks during COVID‐19, or that proposed countermeasures against them. Our analysis identifies the main characteristics of the attacks and the main scientific trends for defending against them, thus highlighting current scientific challenges and promising avenues for future research and experimentation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:32:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a5483c2c26bc493f86f3fa0696c70536 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1751-8709 1751-8717 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-20T02:51:09Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | Hindawi-IET |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IET Information Security |
| spelling | doaj.art-a5483c2c26bc493f86f3fa0696c705362024-10-03T07:27:21ZengHindawi-IETIET Information Security1751-87091751-87172022-09-0116532434510.1049/ise2.12073The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19Ali F. Al‐Qahtani0Stefano Cresci1College of Science and Engineering Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) Doha QatarInstitute of Informatics and Telematics (IIT) National Research Council (CNR) Pisa ItalyAbstract The COVID‐19 pandemic coincided with an equally‐threatening scamdemic: a global epidemic of scams and frauds. The unprecedented cybersecurity concerns emerged during the pandemic sparked a torrent of research to investigate cyber‐attacks and to propose solutions and countermeasures. Within the scamdemic, phishing was by far the most frequent type of attack. This survey paper reviews, summarises, compares and critically discusses 54 scientific studies and many reports by governmental bodies, security firms and the grey literature that investigated phishing attacks during COVID‐19, or that proposed countermeasures against them. Our analysis identifies the main characteristics of the attacks and the main scientific trends for defending against them, thus highlighting current scientific challenges and promising avenues for future research and experimentation.https://doi.org/10.1049/ise2.12073 |
| spellingShingle | Ali F. Al‐Qahtani Stefano Cresci The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19 IET Information Security |
| title | The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19 |
| title_full | The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19 |
| title_fullStr | The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19 |
| title_short | The COVID‐19 scamdemic: A survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during COVID‐19 |
| title_sort | covid 19 scamdemic a survey of phishing attacks and their countermeasures during covid 19 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1049/ise2.12073 |
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