Beware of Coronavirus-Themed Malware Disguised As Excel Spreadsheets
While many parts of America are gearing up for a slow reopening after months of isolation, coronavirus-related scams and malware campaigns are showing no signs of abating . The Microsoft Security Intelligence team recently revealed details of two massive phishing campaigns against the coronavirus, forcing users to download and open malicious Excel files that give hackers remote access to your computer.
Some emails claim to come from Johns Hopkins University, while others offer personalized testing for COVID-19 or similar services. The emails include Excel documents with headings like “WHO COVID-19 SITUATION REPORT,” but they have embedded code that, when opened, invisibly installs the NetSupport Manager Remote Desktop Access Tool.
NetSupport Manager is an official program that is completely safe to use under normal circumstances, so it can slip past your anti-malware or anti-virus software without any problem. In this case, attackers use it to take control of your computer and gain access to files and programs remotely and dump some other nasty malware on your system as part of the installation process that, hopefully, your system will be able to catch.
These are not the first phishing campaigns powered by NetSupport Manager , nor the last. Fortunately, phishing attempts are preventable and even easier to dodge if you know what they look like .
As always, don’t open random emails – it’s a good practice in general, but especially if they claim to be sent from Johns Hopkins University or some random COVID-19 testing center. If you open an email from an unfamiliar address, do not click any links or download files.
And be that as it may , never open a spreadsheet that you weren’t expecting to receive.