Security News > 2020 > February > Hackers using coronavirus scare to spread Emotet malware in Japan
Hackers are using global fears about the spread of the virus to target people in Japan with the Emotet trojan, a popular strain of malware that has been devastatingly effective at attacking governments and financial institutions.
Threat researchers with Kaspersky identified other attempts to spread Emotet using the coronavirus scare as a way to get people to open emails or files and share them.
Previous attempts to spread the Emotet malware in Japan focused primarily on the kind of corporate-style payment notifications and invoices that worked well in Europe.
A Japanese researcher on Twitter has been posting updates about other attempts by hackers to use the coronavirus to spread malware.
Dozens of security researchers said hackers using Emotet routinely use global news events to spread the malware, which can extract valuable data from people or upload malicious programs to your device.
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