WHAT'S going viral aside from the new coronavirus from China? A virus that is infecting computers, not humans, taking advantage of the heightened interest in this public health emergency.
Technology websites from different countries reported a rise in computer infection caused by a virus that gets introduced into the system through an information packet on how to protect yourself from the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease or 2019-nCoV ARD.
Interest in this new illness grew as more countries reported cases of the disease that experts said originated from Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency last Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, as it said the new virus in China has spread to more than a dozen countries and the number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week.
“The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reportedly said.
In the Philippines, people started sharing social media posts on the proper ways to use a mask, tips on how to prevent getting infected and updates on the number of infection cases.
After the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed last week that a 38-year-old woman from Wuhan became the Philippines’s first positive case of the 2019-nCoV ARD, lines of people wanting to buy face masks grew longer. Posts on social media increased as people were hungry for information and updates on what to do next.
In the frenzy, cybercriminals started releasing malicious computer files that appeared to carry tips on how to protect yourself from the new coronavirus. These hackers are taking advantage of people’s interest in the topic and their curiosity to find out the number of deaths and infection cases.
Reporters said Kaspersky, a cybersecurity company, detected malicious files that came in the form of pages or videos in pdf, mp4 or docx format.
The video showed how not to get infected and how to determine if you have the virus. Once the file is clicked, a program is introduced that is capable of destroying or copying data in the computers or computer networks.
This is similar to the computer virus that came in “Happy New Year!” video greetings at the end of December last year. The files were shared through Facebook posts and Messenger chats. Recipients clicked on the video greetings only to find their computers hacked by cybercriminals and their passwords and other personal details stolen.
To prevent getting infected, experts suggest that you go to official sources, such as websites of the WHO at https://www.who.int/ and the DOH at https://www.doh.gov.ph/ and your favorite news website to get information. These sites offer up-to-date reports on the spread of the virus and what to do to prevent infection.
Do not click on suspicious links even if you know the person who sent it.
Protect yourself from the 2019-nCoV ARD and this computer virus.