“Live Coronavirus Map Used to Spread Malware - Krebs on Security” plus 1 more

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Live Coronavirus Map Used to Spread Malware - Krebs on Security Posted: 12 Mar 2020 05:12 PM PDT Cybercriminals constantly latch on to news items that captivate the public's attention, but usually they do so by sensationalizing the topic or spreading misinformation about it. Recently, however, cybercrooks have started disseminating real-time, accurate information about global infection rates tied to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to infect computers with malicious software. A recent snapshot of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus data map, available at coronavirus.jhu.edu. In one scheme, an interactive dashboard of Coronavirus infections and deaths produced by Johns Hopkins University is being used in malicious Web sites (and possibly spam emails) to spread password-stealing malware. Late last month, a member of several Russian language cybercrime forums began selling a digital Coronavirus infection kit that uses the Hopkins interactive map as part of a Java-based malware deployment scheme. The kit costs $200 if the buyer already has a Java code signing certificate, and $700 if the buyer wishes to just use the seller's certificate. "It loads [a] fully working online map of Corona Virus infected areas and other data," the seller explains. "Map is resizable, interactive, and has real time data from World Health Organization and other sources. Users will think that PreLoader is actually a map, so they will open it and will spread it to their friends and it goes viral!" The sales thread claims the customer's payload can be bundled with the Java-based map into a filename that most Webmail providers allow in sent messages. The seller claims in a demonstration video that Gmail also allows it, but the video shows Gmail still warns recipients that downloading the specific file type in question (obscured in the video) can be harmful. The seller says the user/victim has to have Java installed for the map and exploit to work, but that it will work even on fully patched versions of Java. "Loader loads .jar files which has real working interactive Coronavirus realtime data map and a payload (can be a separate loader)," the seller said in the video. "Loader can predownload only map and payload will be loaded after the map is launched to show map faster to users. Or vice versa payload can be predownloaded and launched first." It's unclear how many takers this seller has had, but earlier this week security experts began warning of new malicious Web sites being stood up that used interactive versions of the same map to distract visitors while the sites tried to foist the password-stealing AZORult malware. As long as this pandemic remains front-page news, malware purveyors will continue to use it as lures to snare the unwary. Keep your guard up, and avoid opening attachments sent unbidden in emails — even if they appear to come from someone you know. A tip of the hat to @holdsecurity for a heads up about this malware offering. Tags: Azorult, Coronavirus malware, Coronavirus map, COVID-19 malware, Johns Hopkins University This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2020 at 11:53 am and is filed under Latest Warnings, The Coming Storm. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

I Can’t Stop Playing This Morbid Video Game About Pandemics Destroying the World - Slate Posted: 06 Mar 2020 11:36 AM PST In Plague Inc., the goal is to spread disease, not prevent it. Ndemic Creations Contagion's Screenwriter on Watching His Movie Go Viral Coronavirus Diaries: I Own a Bookstore. I Don't Know How Much Longer We Can Survive. The Fall of Thomas Cromwell Casts a Pall on The Mirror and the Light NBA Suspends Season After Utah Jazz's Rudy Gobert Tests Positive for COVID-19 New York now has 33 documented cases of the novel coronavirus, and I'm coping with the news by exterminating humanity over and over again. While others are dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak by unnecessarily stocking up on water or hoarding masks, I've been playing Plague Inc., a real-time strategy game where the player designs the perfect disease to wipe out the human race. For years, Plague Inc. was a mindless, lighthearted distraction. In the past few weeks, it's become therapeutic. In Plague Inc., which was first released in 2012 as a mobile app, you deliberately spread an illness to try to destroy the global population before they can discover a cure. You start by choosing a plague type—like bacteria, virus, fungus, or bioweapon—and a country of origin, and then the race begins. As you oversee the spread of your disease over land and sea, you earn points to spend on power-ups that affect the growth, infection rate, and severity of the pathogen. The trick is to use those power-ups to ensure maximum infectivity while keeping your plague under the world's radar long enough so that much of the population is infected before you bring out the most lethal attributes: dysentery, necrosis, and total organ failure. That means making sure you've hit the tough-to-reach countries like Greenland and Madagascar, which are only accessible by sea, before unleashing Armageddon. On the surface it certainly appears morbid, calculating the most efficient ways to kill billions of people for fun, especially now. Maybe that's why Chinese officials removed the game from the app store. I get it: Infectious diseases are scary. When I was in high school, I was so obsessed with The Hot Zone, Richard Preston's book about deadly viruses, that my parents became concerned that I saw Ebola around every corner. When I was in college, the campus was gripped by swine flu panic. But as the world grows increasingly anxious about another new disease, playing through a session of Plague Inc. feels a lot like enjoying an episode of My Favorite Murder, taking my looming fear and transforming it into something confrontable and controllable. It's also informative. Though Plague Inc. creator Ndemic Creations has cautioned users against using the game to model the spread of the coronavirus, it does make me think about how we interact with viruses and what sorts of measures are in place to keep us safe. When special events like the Festival of Love pop up where everybody starts kissing, it's a reminder of all the dumb ways we unconsciously pass sicknesses around. The effectiveness of coughing and sneezing in increasing infectivity is a reminder to wash your hands and clean your phone. The addition of anti-vaxxers to the game shows how misinformation can endanger us all. It's always invigorating to win at Plague Inc., watching the population tick down to zero—but failure is the most thrilling outcome of all. Each time the computer beats me, I'm reminded of the ways humanity can survive a biological apocalypse. There are some very grim realities I'm forced to confront while playing, like the fact that "rich" countries are so much harder to infect than "poor" ones, but these are the truths we have to deal with every time a real medical epidemic arises. Playing Plague Inc. lets me confront those realities in a safe way. There are now several Plague Inc. scenarios available that aren't sickness-related, including one that lets you design and sell your own board game—to celebrate the launch of the Plague Inc. board game—and another in which you spread a different kind of disease: fake news. Still, I like to play the original, pandemic-themed game as a reminder that if things really do get bad, there's always Greenland. This piece has been updated with the latest known number of coronavirus cases in New York.

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