Malicious Coronavirus COVID-19 Link

blogs / March 13, 2020

Malicious Coronavirus COVID-19 Link

Hackers are taking advantage of fears surrounding the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak by luring people into clicking links that download malicious software. One such instance is a malicious website link pretending to be a map of global Coronavirus cases masquerading as the legitimate site managed by John Hopkins University. This link (corona-virus-map[dot]com), infects visitors with the AZORult Trojan, which steals sensitive information such as browsing history, cryptocurrency wallets, and passwords/credentials, and more. This Trojan can also act as a gateway for more serious infections. Another potential scam includes phishing emails which pretend to have legitimate information but ask you to click a link or download a file.

Precautions you can take:

Only use verified and reliable websites when looking for a Coronavirus Map dashboard, such as those by the real John Hopkins University or The New York Times
Inspect any links from search results carefully and do not click on or download any attachments from suspicious emails