Cybercriminals are exploiting fears over the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, sending out emails with malicious Word attachments purportedly providing updates on preventing infection but in actuality delivering the Emotet trojan.

“Patients were reported about the new type of coronavirus-related pneumonia, mainly in Takeshi, China. Patients have been reported in Gifu Prefecture in Japan,Therefore, please =check the attached notice,Thank you for your infection prevention measures,” one email read.

“The subject of the emails, as well as the document filenames are similar, but not identical,” according to an IBM XForce Threat Intelligence report detailing a “recent wave” of exploitations associated with the Coronavirus. “They are composed of different representations of the current date and the Japanese word for ‘notification,’ in order to suggest urgency.”

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Topics:

Coronavirus