Examining the behaviours of recent malware exploiting the COVID19 pandemic

The current COVID-19 climate has led to an increase in social engineering-based malware infections worldwide, as malicious actors exploit people’s anxieties and changes in working patterns brought about by the pandemic. Cybercriminals have been using COVID19-themed emails and fraudulent websites to entice Internet users into downloading malware so as to gain a foothold on their systems or networks. These types of malware attacks are set to continue as the pandemic is far from over, with many parts of the world experiencing resurgence of the COVID-19 virus after the easing of lockdown measures. Hence, this talk will focus on recent malware that have been designed to exploit the pandemic to inflict damage to individuals and organizations. The infection methods used by such malware will be discussed, and their various techniques, behaviour and impact will be analyzed. This will not only raise our collective awareness about the COVID-19 related malware but will also provide some technical insight that will enhance preventive and defensive efforts to curb the spread of such malware.