Coronavirus has wreaked havoc around the world and has been declared as a global pandemic by WHO. As if the chaos the Virus had wrecked in the physical wasn’t enough, it has now transcended into the virtual world disrupting the solace of the online realm.
Hackers and cybercriminals have found a way to exploit panic-stricken people around the globe by stealing their sensitive personal information.
Hackers and other cybercriminals have found a way to steal your information by utilizing the fear of coronavirus that has engulfed everyone. Several organizations have made dashboards to keep track of COVID-19. But now, hackers have found a way to use these dashboards to inject malware into computers. Hackers send emails that claim to have vital information regarding the outbreak of coronavirus and direct you to a website which claims to hold maps for tracking the coronavirus or the download link for an application for the same.
The website either asks you to put in your login details or download an application on to your system. The map is actually the one developed by Johns Hopkins University and is an interactive COVID-19 tracking Map. The university Is aware of the hackers selling malware by impersonating the real map and advice on only trusting the map that is on their website and the one maintained by ArcGIS. The malware at its core requires the user to software to generate a fake map which is actually malicious in nature.
“If you receive an email containing a link to download such an item or come across the code for the malicious App please report it immediately to the Esri incident response team through ArcGIS Trust Center security concern page,” Jill Rosen, Johns Hopkins spokeswoman said in a statement.
The software being used is known as AZORult and was first found in 2016. The software can is designed to steal your data from your computer including cryptocurrencies and passwords.A new variant of AZORult installs a secret admin account on your computer to perform remote attacks.
In this time of chaos, not panicking is the key. It is advised to reach out to your local healthcare authorities for authentic and reliable information on the Corona Virus. Only reliable online medical sources from reputable institutes are to be trusted such as the World Health Organization and not news circulated on the internet as they are often misleading.