Coronavirus outbreak: Hackers are tricking people into downloading malware via emails

With coronavirus wrecking havoc across the world, hackers are using the opportunity to send people fake emails laden with malware. These emails are in the guise of official notifications from public health centers, often with attachments that promise more details on preventive measures against the virus.

Multiple email campaigns have been detected by security firms like Kaspersky who are monitoring for the latest threats and all of these campaigns have used coronavirus as a hook to get unsuspecting victims to open infected messages.

The first major malware campaign was detected by IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence where victims were targeted with coronavirus infection reports in various Japanese prefectures including Gifu, Osaka and Tottori.