How to detect malicious coronavirus email messages

Even as coronavirus continues to spread across the world,
with nations calling for shut down of institutions, cyber security could be at
stake as hackers attempt to use COVID-19 message to distribute malicious messages.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday called on employers to find
ways of securely supporting employees working from home.

However, these seems to be challenging, especially in sectors
like critical infrastructure and government defense, proving it unsafe for
workers to work at home.

Reports across the world show that some government-sponsored
hackers have been sending malicious attachment to COVID-19 mails, targeting to
attack other governments.

Also read: A discussion about guarding mental health during the
COVID-19 pandemic.

Wired news reports that a Chinese firm QiAnXin spotted
Russian hackers—possibly affiliated with the groups Sandworm and Fancy
Bear—sending phishing emails laced with malicious document attachments to
Ukrainian targets.

The emails, which claimed to come from Ukraine’s Center for
Public Health of the Ministry of Health, came amidst a larger disinformation
campaign that stoked fear about the spread of Covid-19 in Ukraine and resulted
in riots.

An attempt was also spotted in Vietnam, where Vietnamese
security firm VinCSS detected a high volume of novel coronavirus-related
phishing emails attributed to government hackers, with a malicious attachment
that purports to contain information about Covid-19 from the Vietnamese prime
minister.

Another campaign attributed to Chinese actors by researchers
at Check Point targeted victims in Mongolia.

North Korean hackers were also spotted targeting South Korea
with phishing attacks at the end of February. The campaigns seemed to target
government officials with malware-tainted documents.

The Kenyan government should be wary of these and caution
its security department and the business community against such attempts.

To avoid such attacks, always ensure that you are certain of
the source of the mail that you have received, before clicking.