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Be Careful When Tracking Coronavirus, These Websites May Infect Your Computer

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Hackers-coronavirus-maps App Stealing Data WhatsApp
Image courtesy ComputerWorld

Coronavirus continues to spread and we cannot deny that it is important to keep an eye at what’s happening across the globe. It is even more vital now that we have the first case confirmed in Kenya. Several organisations like the WHO have sites and dashboards actively updating on every new case in every country.

But it now seems that hackers have found a way to inject malware into computers using these sites. It was recently found that hackers are using these maps to siphon info from various computers. This includes stuff like usernames, passwords, contacts, banking credentials and any other thing saved on one’s browser.

Actually, these attackers have designed their own sites related to the coronavirus so as to prompt users to log in to them for any further information. These maps are not necessarily applications that need installing making them even more attractive to users. It only later turns out to one that they are platforms for the hackers to generate malicious binary files.

What’s even more dangerous is that a number of these maps pose as genuine sites and sources of data, only to have different URLs and details from the original sources. As of now, the malware only affects Windows computers. However, it is speculated that the attackers are generating new versions of it. So that does not mean that anyone is completely safe from these attacks. This is intel coming from experts at a research group, Alfasi. 

So as much as we may want to keep tabs with everything going on, it is important to be absolutely cautious with what we are logging into. This is exactly why we compiled a list of all the genuine sites that you can use to track COVID-19. 

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2 Comments

  1. […] March, 2020: The coronavirus has killed nearly 3,500 people and infected another 102,000 people across 90 countries. Lebanon and Morocco report their first deaths. The Republic of Congo confirms its first cases of […]

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