Security News

Cybercriminals are using fake email messages about the coronavirus to spead the Emotet Trojan as well as other malware, according to reports released this week by IBM and Kaspersky. The cybercriminals spreading the Emotet Trojan apparently are attempting to target regions closer to China, where the coronavirus originated, but it's likely that their tactics will shift to other countries in the coming weeks, according to IBM. "We expect to see more malicious email traffic based on the coronavirus in the future, as the infection spreads," the IBM researchers say.

A recent spate of malicious, botnet-driven emails is using the coronavirus as a theme, according to telemetry from IBM X-Force and Kaspersky. "Previously, Japanese Emotet emails have been focused on corporate style payment notifications and invoices, following a similar strategy as emails targeting European victims," said the firm.

The cancellation - or postponement, depending on how optimistic you want to be - was announced by the DEF CON team on Monday, a little more than ten weeks before the confab was scheduled to take place in Beijing. "China has announced a six-month hold on events like ours as part of the effort to combat the coronavirus outbreak," the DEF CON team said.

The second edition of the DEF CON China hacking conference has been put on hold as the country is fighting the coronavirus outbreak. The outbreak is prompting China to put several cities in lockdown.