Security News > 2020 > April > US, Britain Warn That Hackers Increasingly Use Coronavirus Bait
US and British cybersecurity agencies warned Wednesday that foreign government-backed hacking groups are using coronavirus themes to ply their way into computers and networks.
Some use email and SMS subject lines like "2020 Coronavirus updates" or "Coronavirus outbreak in your city(Emergency)", while others might offer an attached file with purported updates on national policies to deal with the pandemic, said an alert jointly issued by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and Britain's national Cyber Security Center.
"APT groups are using the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their cyber operations, they said, referring to the"Advanced Persistent Threat" designation that Western intelligence agencies use for hacking operations tied to governments in Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.".
The two cybersecurity groups said, hackers are trying to take advantage of the kinds of networking services millions of people are using to work from home.
The hackers have targeted conferencing apps like those of Zoom and Microsoft Teams, they noted.