Hackers Utilize Coronavirus Tracker Maps for Spreading Malware

Hackers have shown no mercy as the world faces yet another dramatic twist from coronavirus dilemma. The cybercriminals have found coronavirus to be a source of making money by breaching people’s personal details and bank accounts.

The cybersecurity researchers have spotted fake COVID-19 tracker maps used to hack people’s computers with malware.

As the ongoing global outbreak of coronavirus has affected individuals and businesses, hackers see this as an opportunity to capitalize on it and get their game going. The increasing coronavirus has got people worried and when they go searching COVID-19 on their systems, hackers are hiding and looking to hack their personal data.

At first, hackers launched email campaigns of coronavirus through which they infected user systems with malware but now they have found a new way by using dashboards. Different organizations have created tracking maps of COVID-19 to guide people and provide information regarding the infected areas across the globe. Institutions including John Hopkins University have created dashboards to track the spread of COVID-19.

Findings from cybersecurity firm Reason Labs show that the hackers are spreading malicious sites that tend to update people with COVID-19 using maps and hack their bank accounts, credit card information, etc.

The researcher Shai Alfasi from Reason Labs stated that this technique of hacking is very common and there will be an increase in COVID-19 malware and its variants in time to come.

Hackers are using software named AZORult which is an information stealer used to hack browsing data, ID and passwords, cookies, and much more mentioned Alfasi.

The strategy of hackers is to circulate links of such sites disguised as coronavirus maps on different social platforms or fake emails.

As people open those malicious links, their system becomes vulnerable and is open to AZORult that helps the hackers gain access to all the information resided on their systems.

AZORult new variant installs a secret admin account on the computer system that carries out remote attacks. As the tension of coronavirus is increasing swiftly more people are likely to get trapped by malware. At the start of this month, research from Check Point recorded that around 50% of people are likely to install COVID-19 malware on their systems.