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Sophos identifies Coronavirus “safety measures” scam email, lists measures to avoid it

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BY: Sandra Ani

Cybercrooks love a crisis, because it gives them a believable reason to contact you with a phishing scam, Sophos has said, as it alerts individuals and businesses on the Coronavirus “safety measures” email is a phishing scam.

Sophos evolves to meet every new challenge, protecting more than 400,000 organizations of all sizes in more than 150 countries from today’s most advanced cyber threats.

Powered by SophosLabs, its cloud-native and AI-enhanced solutions are able to adapt and evolve to secure endpoints and networks against never-before-seen cybercriminal tactics and techniques.

Sophos is asking businesses to be ware of the scam email

Sophos Security Team reported of the current scam that uses the coronavirus to lure unsuspecting businesses and people with the email which carries the logo of the World Health Organization and states:

.Go through the attached document on safety measures regarding the spreading of corona virus.

.Click on the button below to download

.Symptoms common symptoms include fever, coughcshortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Sophos said that fortunately, at least for fluent speakers of English, the criminals have made numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes that act as warning signs that this is not what it seems.

“The link you’re asked to click on is similarly, and fortunately, dubious.

“Firstly, it seems to be a compromised music site with a weird name that doesn’t have any obvious connection to any well-known health organisation; secondly, it is an HTTP site, not an HTTPS site, which is sufficiently unusual these days to be suspicious in its own right.

“Nevertheless, the scam page itself is incredibly simple – it can’t have taken the crooks more than a few minutes to put together – and visually effective.

“The fake page consists of the official, current home page of the World Health Organisation (WHO) with an unassuming popup form on top of it.

To stay safe implies you need to be careful and understand the tricks adopted by the cyber criminals

“It doesn’t just look like the WHO’s page in the background, it is the WHO’s page, rendered in a frame that’s embedded in the fake site:

“You can see why someone who’s nervous about the coronavirus issue, or who has friends and family in the main areas of infection, or who wants to do the right thing by learning more about preventing the spread of the disease…

“…might fill in the form, perhaps because they are feeling pressurised by (or not thinking clearly because of) the subject matter.

“Indeed, many companies have already sent emails to their staff to offer advice, so reading additional information that is allegedly from the WHO sounds like a sensible and responsible thing to do.

“Of course, if you put in your email address or your password and click through, you’ll be submitting the filled-in web form to the crooks.

“Worse still, you’ll be submitting it over an unencrypted connection.

“So anyone else on the same network as you, for example in your hotel lobby or the coffee shop, could potentially capture your network traffic and see the username and password you just put in.

“Once you’ve clicked the [Verify] button, the crooks simply redirect you to the real WHO site at who DOT int, which looks just like the previous page you were on, minus the popup form…

“…with the rather obvious exception that the address bar now looks (and is) correct, displaying the genuine WHO website name, showing a padlock and – if you click through and view the web certificate – a certificate that shows up as issued to the WHO itself.

Sophos also offered measures on what to do about it:

Never let yourself feel pressured into clicking a link in an email. Most importantly, don’t act on advice you didn’t ask for and weren’t expecting. If you are genuinely seeking advice about the coronavirus, do your own research and make your own choice about where to look.

Don’t be taken in by the sender’s name. This scam says it’s from “World Health Organization”, but the sender can put any name they like in the From: field.

Look out for spelling and grammatical errors. Not all crooks make mistakes, but many do. Take the extra time to review messages for telltale signs that they’re fraudulent – it’s bad enough to get scammed at all without realising afterwards that you could have spotted the fraud up front.

Check the URL before you type it in or click a link. If the website you’re being sent to doesn’t look right, stay clear. Do your own research and make your own choice about where to look.

Never enter data that a website shouldn’t be asking for. There is no reason for a health awareness web page to ask for your email address, let alone your password. If in doubt, don’t give it out.

If you realise you just revealed your password to imposters, change it as soon as you can. The crooks who run phishing sites typically try out stolen passwords immediately (this process can often be done automatically), so the sooner you react, the more likely you will beat them to it.

Never use the same password on more than one site. Once crooks have a password, they will usually try it on every website where you might have an account, to see if they can get lucky.

Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) if you can. Those six-digit codes that you receive on your phone or generate via an app are a minor inconvenience to you, but are usually a huge barrier for the crooks, because just knowing your password alone is not enough.

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The Peruvian Government Has Officially Classified Transgender, Nonbinary And Intersex People As “Mentally ill”

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According to the country’s ministry of health, the controversial decision was made to ensure the country’s public health services could “guarantee full coverage of medical attention for mental health” for the trans community.

It also categorises “dual-role transvestitism,” “fetishistic transvestism,” and “other gender identity disorders” under the same bracket of mental illness.

The new law will change language in the Essential Health Insurance Plan (PEAS) to reflect the view of trans and intersex people as a mental health disorder.

Trans groups across Peru have loudly condemned the decision as a step backwards for the country’s already complex relationship with LGBTQ+ rights.

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Math Teacher Accused Of Having Sex With 2 Students And Getting Pregnant For One Tearfully Reveals The Baby Was Taken Away From Her

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The UK teacher who had a baby with an underage student while on trial for having sex with another teenage boy broke down in court after revealing her newborn baby girl had been “taken away” from her.

Manchester math teacher Rebecca Joynes, 30, sobbed to jurors over how her baby was taken “24 hours after being born” this past January — and now she only sees her for nine hours a week, Joynes told jurors on Monday, May 13, according to the Manchester Evening News.

“At the moment I have contact with her three times a week for three hours and that’s it,” she said through tears.

Joynes was arrested and released on bail on orders not to have unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 after allegedly grooming her pupil, known as Boy A in court, by buying him a $430 Gucci belt before bringing him to her apartment for unprotected sex.

She was suspended from school and eventually fired, but soon after, she began having a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, known in court as Boy B, whom she had a baby with in January.

Joynes, who has denied having sex with either boy when they were underage, told the court that when she learned of the allegations against her she had gone to the second boy in a “panic” and he deleted all of her phone’s content.

The former teacher denied having a sexual relationship with the second boy until after he turned 16 and she was already suspended from teaching.

According to her narration,

She said he had added her on Snapchat twice, which she only accepted the second time because she thought he “wanted to tell her something.”

Joynes said a friendship developed and he quickly became her “best friend” even though the boy would make flirtatious and sexualized comments toward her when he was drunk.

She told jurors that it wasn’t until after his 16th birthday that he messaged her saying “I’ve left school now” with a winky face.

After she received notice that she had been dismissed from her job, he went to her apartment, where following an emotional conversation, they had sex.

The two then entered a relationship that Joynes described as “quite toxic” telling the court how the teenager was “very controlling.”

After discovering she was pregnant, Joynes hid love notes for the boy to find around her apartment.

The notes eventually led to a piece of baby clothing that had the words “I love my daddy to the moon and back” written on it.

The court was told that she gave birth to their baby girl in January, but following an emergency court hearing, the newborn was taken away from Joynes.

Joynes has denied two counts of sexual activity with Boy A; two counts of sexual activity with Boy B; and two counts of sexual activity with Boy B while being a person in a position of trust.

Her trial is ongoing.

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First Man To Receive Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died

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The first Man to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died two months after the operation.

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which carried out the procedure in March, announced Sunday, May 12, that Richard “Rick” Slayman, 62, has died.

They said there was no indication his death was a result of the transplant.

Transplants of other organs from genetically modified pigs have failed in the past, but the operation on Mr Slayman, who was suffering with end-stage kidney disease, was hailed as a historic milestone.

In addition to kidney disease, Mr Slayman also suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

In 2018, he had a human kidney transplant, but it began to fail after five years.

Following his pig kidney transplant on March 16, his doctors confirmed he no longer needed dialysis after the new organ was said to be functioning well.

“Mr Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation,” MGH said in a statement.

Xenotransplantation is the transplanting of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another.

MGH said it was “deeply saddened” at his sudden death and offered condolences to his family.

Mr Slayman’s relatives said his story was an inspiration.

“Rick said that one of the reasons he underwent this procedure was to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” they said.

“Rick accomplished that goal and his hope and optimism will endure forever.

“To us, Rick was a kind-hearted man with a quick-witted sense of humour who was fiercely dedicated to his family, friends, and co-workers,” they added.

While Mr Slayman received the first pig kidney to be transplanted into a human, it is not the first pig organ to be used in a transplant procedure.

Two other patients have received pig heart transplants, but those procedures were unsuccessful as the recipients died a few weeks later.

In one case, there were signs the patient’s immune system had rejected the organ, which is a common risk in transplants.

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