Coronavirus is creating a global pandemic that has infected the whole world hackers are using this as an opportunity to steal sensitive information of the users and install ransomware on the smartphones of users to force them to pay the ransom amount.
One of the security firm name DomainTools has found a website that promises to track cases of Coronavirus on their android app but in reality, it is a malicious app that when installed execute ransomware.
The website was found on the URL “coronavirusapp(.)site”. When a user lands on this website the website shows fake certificates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The app claims that it has more than 6,000,000 reviews and an average of 4.4 stars after 500 million downloads.
The fake coronavirus tracker app promises to give statistics of Real-time reports of Coronavirus from over 100 countries. According to the app, it sends an alert notification whenever a Coronavirus patient is near. After the installation, it executes ransomware named Covidlock that force changes the screen-lock.
After that victim is given 48 hours of the deadline and after this, the attacker blackmails that he/she would erase all the data of phone and all social media account if the victim doesn’t pay him a ransom of $100 in bitcoin.
However, no such cases for such type of ransom amount have been reported and the firm claims that they had found the decryption key of the app which they will post publicly and also they keep an eye on the bitcoin address of the attacker’s account.
However, it was not the first time that attackers are using such pandemic of coronavirus earlier also there were cases of fake Coronavirus map that steals accounts of users.
Recently Iran has also launched an app that claims to tell the users that they have symptoms of Coronavirus or not, but it was just to collect the location of the millions of Iranian users.
Yesterday Microsoft Bing has launched an official portal that tells the total number of real-time cases of coronavirus infection around the globe.
