NEW DELHI: Coronavirus outbreak has been declared as pandemic by the World Health Organisation. The virus emanated from the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 and has till now infected 1,21,000 people leading to the death of 4,300. Many universities and organizations have introduced dashboards that help in keeping track of the growing coronavirus. The hackers are now taking advantage of the situation and are sending malware to computers.

As reported by Reason Labs, hackers are using the maps displayed in live tracking to steal information of users which include user names, credit card numbers, passwords and other information stored in the browser.

The research reveals that attackers have designed websites that will prompt users to download an app in order to keep themselves updated with the situation of coronavirus. The findings highlight that the app does not need any installation and it also shows a map detailing the spread of coronavirus. Using this, hackers create a malicious binary file which is later installed on the computer.

The fake website created comes across as the genuine maps for tracking but has a different URL. Presently, only Windows users are affected by this, but it can soon spread to other operating systems as well.

The research mentions, “the new malware activates a strain of malicious software known as AZORult. AZORult is an information stealer and was first discovered in 2016. It is used to steal browsing history, cookies, ID/passwords, cryptocurrency and more. It can also download additional malware onto infected machines.”

As the coronavirus continues to spread and more apps and technologies are developed to monitor it, we will likely be seeing an increase in corona malware and corona malware variants well into the foreseeable future.

Source:- gadgetsnow