Several cybersecurity companies have spotted campaigns that use coronavirus-themed emails to deliver malware, phishing attempts and scams.
The new coronavirus outbreak, which started in China, has made a lot of headlines recently and has caused global panic. Over 40,000 infections have been confirmed and the death toll has exceeded 1,000. The virus has been named 2019-nCoV and Covid-19.
Given the virus’s impact, it’s not surprising that cybercriminals and fraudsters have been leveraging the panic for their own gain. Alerts about cyber threats exploiting the coronavirus outbreak have been issued by several firms and new campaigns continue to emerge.
One new campaign, spotted by researchers at Proofpoint this week, leverages the potential disruptions caused by the coronavirus to global shipping. The attackers seem to target industries such as manufacturing, industrial, finance, transportation, pharmaceutical and cosmetic.
In this operation, cybercriminals believed to be located in Russia and Eastern Europe are sending out emails with specially crafted Word documents set up to exploit a Microsoft Office vulnerability discovered back in 2017. If the flaw is successfully exploited, a variant of the AZORult information-stealing malware is delivered.
The malicious emails warn potential victims about the impact of the coronavirus on the shipping industry.
Proofpoint and IBM reported in late January that they had observed malicious documents set up to deliver the notorious Emotet banking trojan. The operation has been attributed to a known cybercriminal group and it’s aimed at users in Japan.
Kaspersky has seen c ..
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