Do You Know That Cybercriminals Are Now Exploiting The Coronavirus Scare To Infect Global Targets?

Today’s cyber threats ride on real virus threats. Emotet, a malware gang notorious for taking advantage of trending current events, is exploiting the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic by scaring potential victims into opening malicious attachments, camouflaged as official notifications from public health centers and disability welfare service providers. This tactic has already been observed in Japan, where the gang is actively distributing malware payloads via emails that warn targets of coronavirus infection reports in various cities.

Using stolen emails from previously compromised accounts as templates, this campaign leverages footers containing the addresses of legitimate institutions for added authenticity, capitalizing on the coronavirus’s wide impact and the fear of infection surrounding it. The potential ramifications of receiving malware through such malicious emails are grave: as seen in 2017’s WannaCry attack, ransomware cost the UK’s National Health Service £20 million, while resulting in 19,000 medical appointments canceled and 600 clinics left ineffectual without running IT systems.