The Wuhan coronavirus has certainly stirred up fear amongst the masses, with over 40,000 cases confirmed at the time of writing, with 18 cases confirmed in Malaysia. But despite the severity of the outbreak, there have been certain side issues that have plagued the masses as well, including fake news, false “antidotes”—and now, malware.
According to a report, cybercriminals have been taking advantage of the general fear surrounding the virus by sending out emails with tips and updates on the outbreak—with malware hidden within attachments. This was first reported by IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence, and the perpetrators have purportedly been targeting the malware at users in Japanese locations in Gifu, Osaka, and Tottori.
These emails are sent under the guise of official updates from public health centres and authorities, and malware-ridden attachments promise to give more details on how to take precautions against the outbreak. These attachments, when downloaded and opened, are linked to infamous malware, Emotet, which can access browsing history and user login credentials.
This isn’t the only case of perpetrators taking advantage of the mass panic over the outbreak. Cybersecurity experts at Kaspersky have also shared that malware-containing documents have been making the rounds, mostly purporting to have instructions on how to protect yourself from the virus.
According to Anton Ivanov, an analyst from Kaspersky:
“The coronavirus, which is being widely discussed as a major news story, has already been used as bait by cybercriminals. So far, we have seen only 10 unique files, but as this sort of activity often happens with popular media topics then we expect that this tendency may grow. As people continue to be worried for their health, we may see more and more malware hidden inside fake documents about the coronavirus being spread.”
Some advice from the experts where it comes to protecting yourself from harmful malware—not the coronavirus, remember:
– Do not click on suspicious links that promise exclusive content, but obtain information from official, trustworthy sources.
Check file extensions of downloaded files. Documents and video files don’t use the .EXE file format.
To be honest, it’s pretty demotivating to see people take advantage of a situation such as the novel coronavirus outbreak. While it’s probably just a minority of the population, times like these are when certain groups—such as the demographic that isn’t tech-savvy—are at their most susceptible to these sort of ploys.
Remember to always verify the authenticity of information before you choose to trust it. When it comes to the ongoing outbreak, a good place to get updates is from the Ministry of Health (Twitter, Facebook).
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