Everyone who is aware of the latest news has noticed that the coranavirus is on all media platforms, on the radio, television, magazines, etc. This is something that Informational pirates have perceived and have been using this “fashion” to get the victim's attention and carry out their attacks.

Lately they have used the coronavirus to carry out a spam campaign and strain Emotet malware.

We already know that through spam campaigns, from a simple malicious email, we can be victims of malware and very varied threats. Cybercriminals have a wide variety of techniques to achieve their goals and attack victims' devices.

Now it seems that his latest technique is to use the coronavirus that affects thousands of people especially in China. They pretend to be an official email, from health and safety agencies, with the aim of fearing the victim. They warn that there are reports of coronavirus infection in the area and, ultimately, seek to capture attention.

Actually we are facing a fraudulent email that has no other purpose than to simply have the victim open it and download an attachment. That file is the real threat, since it's Emotet.

Emotet is one of the threats that has been most present in recent times. It is not the first time that it appears in spam campaigns taking advantage of the circumstances of the moment.

According to security researchers have detected this spam campaign, and indicate that it is more sophisticated than on other occasions. At the moment it is affecting users in Japan, but knowing how Emotet works and this type of campaign is expected to be aimed also at users from many other nations.

Basically what they are looking for is to look like an official notification. They hope to create an alert message for the victim to open that email. That e-mail contains an attachment that you expect the user to open. When this occurs the threat is executed.

Security researchers indicate that this campaign may be more successful than similar ones due to the great international impact that coronavirus is having.

This makes many unsuspecting users more likely to open email and, ultimately, download and install Emotet malware.

When this occurs, when macros are enabled, the Emotet payload is installed on the victim's device through a PowerShell command.

To avoid this problem and many others we recommend using your common sense. You never have to open or download attachments that we receive in our mail without really being sure of the source and the reason for it.