
Beware of criminals pretending to be WHO - nstj
https://www.who.int/about/communications/cyber-security
======
hk__2
> Make sure the link starts with '[https://www.who.int'](https://www.who.int')

This should include a trailing slash, otherwise something like
'[https://www.who.int.example.com'](https://www.who.int.example.com')
qualifies as “starts with '[https://www.who.int](https://www.who.int) '”.

Edit: strangely, if I try to edit my comment above to remove the space between
.int and ', HN serves me a 502 Bad Gateway.

~~~
srl
\--I'm writing this comment because I want to see if I can reproduce that
bug.--

Well, I give up. Whether or not I get the error appears to not only depend on
the text I'm trying to change _to_ , but also the text I'm changing _from_. It
does look like HN is trying to parse the URL, and is unhappy with a URL that
ends with the three characters <'".>. But the weird hysteresis... I can't
guess.

(How on earth am I supposed to quote a string like <'".>?)

~~~
jchw
> (How on earth am I supposed to quote a string like <'".>?)

Well, obviously... "'\"."

:)

------
ademars94
Don't worry, we won't be fooled again.

------
duxup
I'm sure it works but it is an interesting angle for a scam.

I can't imagine a reason the WHO would contact me directly, ever.

Now my wife, she gets constant calls from the "FBI" demanding information. I
mean that's hard to belive too (they're very mean and threatening but somehow
have never found us...) but at least the FBI seems like a government
organization that I would belive would have some sort of ... jurisdiction.

But I suppose when I have a lot of government related conversations with
people and have to have the "that's not how it works ... at all" type
discussions, I guess a lot of people just don't know.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
My current favorite is Jerome Powell telling me I have a metric tonne of money
to claim.

That said, WHO is an interesting choice. Would anyone really act based on
their demands? edit. CDC seems better.

~~~
akhilcacharya
I kinda wonder what the overlap between people who know who Jerome Powell is
and the people who would fall for this

------
netsharc
After reading this story: [https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-mom-broke-into-
prison-wa...](https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-mom-broke-into-prison-
wardens-computer/) , one should also be wary of people claiming to be from the
local health authorities.

Imagine that, people in hazmat suits barge in, claim someone called them from
your office building, they're there to secure the building, etc, etc...

~~~
whalesalad
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_\(security\))

If you ever need to be somewhere important put on a reflective vest and a hard
hat and walk around with a clipboard saying excuse me excuse me and more often
than not you can get right on thru.

~~~
turrican
I used to work in penetration testing. It’s funny (scary?) how far dressing
business casual, carrying an open laptop, and claiming to be IT gets you.

~~~
martyvis
I've done quite a few wireless surveys as a consultant in businesses,
colleges, etc. I pretty much was never questioned when walking around,
knocking on doors and going into offices with my laptop opened and saying that
I was "scanning the wifi signal level for IT". I sometimes was given a set of
keys and if they didn't work on a door I'd ask someone in the department there
if they'd let me in.

------
htfu
Isn't point #1 and (partly) #2 incredibly dangerous? Sender field is easy to
spoof, and while advice to go directly to their website is sound, it doesn't
explain what "checking the link" actually entails, and many might not know a
link in an email can say one thing and take you somewhere different.

So people reading this might be _more_ susceptible to future, more
sofisticated, attempts of the same type, rather than less.

~~~
bad_user
Receiving an email from @who.int isn't a guarantee that the email is legit,
but it is a minimal requirement and they aren't claiming otherwise.

------
ErikAugust
I was happy to see WHO has coronavirus.com.

Edit: Ha, not even owned by them.

~~~
ck2
not WHO owned, registered 2002, wow that's some foresight

now they are getting search rank by getting people to link to it and later
they can redirect it or put whatever content they want on it

~~~
gorydetails
Not really. COVID-19 is not the first major coronavirus. SARS and MERS come to
mind.

[https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-
conditions/coronaviruses](https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-
conditions/coronaviruses)

~~~
asveikau
Outside of those two (now 3), I thought also there were a bunch of relatively
harmless coronaviruses that people just consider comparable to common cold.

Wikipedia says:

Coronaviruses were discovered in the 1960s.[8] The earliest ones discovered
were infectious bronchitis virus in chickens and two viruses from the nasal
cavities of human patients with the common cold that were subsequently named
human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43.[9]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus#Discovery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus#Discovery)

And later:

Coronaviruses are believed to cause a significant proportion of all common
colds in adults and children.

The coronaviruses HCoV-229E, -NL63, -OC43, and -HKU1 continually circulate in
the human population and cause respiratory infections in adults and children
world-wide.

------
guramarx11
chuckle at the ironic title, better prep yourself if your country's CDC still
listen to WHO for advice

------
twoflower9
I thought the WHO were the criminals

~~~
notriddle
I thought The Who were a rock music band.

------
whotang
Call for the resignation of Tedros.

[https://change.org/p/united-nations-call-for-the-
resignation...](https://change.org/p/united-nations-call-for-the-resignation-
of-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-who-director-general)

~~~
martyvis
Would it really have made any difference? As far as I have observed each and
every country ( and in some cases states and provinces) are setting their own
levels of containment and will continue to do so.

