Because there wasn’t enough going on, now we get this. Just another example of miscreants taking advantage because they can’t earn a living legitimately.

By Charlie Osborne – A new strain of ransomware is being deployed in attacks created off the back of the release of contact-tracing apps during the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

Researchers from ESET said this week that the ransomware emerged only a few days after Health Canada announced the release of COVID Alert, which will first be tested in Ontario before rolling out nationwide.

While the official app is not due to be made available to mobile device users until next month at the earliest, cyberattackers are trying to capitalize on the government’s announcement with an Android package of their own — marketed as Canada’s official COVID-19 tracing app, but hiding a malicious secret. 

According to the cybersecurity firm, two websites offered what appeared to be Health Canada’s tracing app. However, the now-defunct domains — tracershield[.]ca and covid19tracer[.]ca — were actually hosting APKs that, when downloaded, installed the CryCryptor ransomware on Android devices.  Read On: