If you are planning to register yourself for COVID vaccination, this news is very important for you. As millions of people have been registering themselves for COVID-19 vaccination, fraudsters and hackers have found new ways to trap them.
Cybercriminals are encouraging people to register through fake APK files. In such a situation, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a new advisory by alerting people about the fake CoWin vaccine registration app. These fake apps are gaining popularity from viral SMS. In its officially advisory, CERT-In said that the SMS message carries a link that installs the malicious app on Android-based devices, the Zee Media Bureau reported.
"The app essentially spreads itself via SMS to victims' contacts. The app also gains unnecessary permissions that attackers could leverage to acquire user data such as contact list," CERT-In said. Scammers are using multiple variants of SMSs to trap citizens into their fishy net.
Usually, the SMS advises receivers to download and install any of the five apps on their smartphone. The apps are downloaded as APK files so that scammers can easily inject malware into their smartphones.
Following are some of the APK files that are being circulated- Covid-19.apk, vaci_regis.apk, myvaccine_v2.apk, cov-regis.apk, vccin-apply.apk.
Notably, none of these APK links redirects you to Google Play Store or Apple App Store when you click on it. The APK instantly gets downloaded on your smartphone when you tap on it. No authorized app can get downloaded on your phone instantly, the phone would first ask for your permission but nothing like that happens when you click on one of these APKs.
As part of measures to check such malicious attempts of data breach, it advised users to tune their phone setting in a manner that disables installation of apps through "untrusted sources" and that sides should undertake safe browsing and use trusted anti-virus and internet firewall tools.
Currently, the official portal where one can book Covid-19 vaccine slots is the CoWin portal, which can be accessed at cowin.gov.in. Indians can also the Aarogya Setu app to access cowin.gov.in to their vaccine appointment, the report said.
Apart from this, there are some third-party vaccine trackers that help people find vaccine slots. However, these apps/ websites only provide slot updates, so that people can register themselves on the official website.
