The coronavirus is sending the world into a panic and hackers are using it as bait to steal people’s personal data.
Security experts have discovered cybercriminals are sending emails with a malicious strain of software disguised as information about the outbreak.
The emails, discovered in Japan, claim the virus has spread like wildfire throughout the country and prompt recipients to open an attachment to ‘learn more’.
This attachment gives hackers access to the victim’s computer, allowing them to harvest personal data and infect their computers with a virus.
The coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It has been named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The name stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.
Experts say the bug, which has killed around one in 50 patients since the outbreak began in December, is a ‘sister’ of the SARS illness which hit China in 2002, so has been named after it.
The disease that the virus causes has been named COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019.
And now hackers are taking advantage of people’s fears.
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