In recent trends, cybersecurity issues have become a big day-to-day struggle for businesses. Pandemic did not only bring our life to a halt but also bought a great loss to a cybersecurity system. Along with the increase of malicious COVID-19 cases in uncertain times, the number of cyberattacks and data breaches also raised.
As per the reports by cybersecurity ventures, the cybercrime damage is projected to hit $6 trillion by 2021 annually. Cybersecurity also reveal a huge increase in data breaches and hacking from common workplaces like mobile and IoT devices.
Now, in this post, you will gain a current state of overall security and the statistics of cybersecurity incidents and events during a pandemic.
11 Must-Know Cybersecurity Statistics:
Although there are many different kinds of cybersecurity statistics. It includes Data Breaches, Hacking statistics, Cybercrime statistics by attack type, Cybersecurity Compliance and Governance statistics, Industry-specific cyber statistics, Security Spending and Cost statistics, and Cybersecurity Job statistics.
Let’s dig into the key takeaways related to hacking and cybersecurity threats that happed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Spike In Email Phishing:
As per the reports of Barracuda Network, there is a 667% increase in email phishing attacks from February 2020. The three themes of these email phishing attacks are business email compromise, brand impersonation, and scam.
In this phishing email, you can lose your confidential data, network mayhem, credential compromise, and monetary loss. You can save your data from this kind of email by reporting it as spam, by deleting it, or by not responding to it.
2. 105% Spike In Ransomware:
There have been 105% spike in Ransomware threat as per the 2020 cyberthreat reports. It is estimated to cost $6 trillion by the end of 2021. The cost of Ransomware for businesses is more than $75 billion per year.
However, during the attacks, the targeted user is provided with some malicious files to gain confidential data. Once the user becomes the victim of this attack, then all of their data is encrypted. Every 11 seconds in 2021, a new organization will be the victim of Ransomware.
3. Brute Force Attacks:
For the Remote Desktop Protocols (RDP’s), the multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider Kaspersky observed a 400% increase in Brute Force attacks. The reports suggest that all the attacks took place during the quarantine and stay home period across the globe.
Talking about the USA, the number of Brute Force attacks before the pandemic was around 200,000, and later in March during a pandemic, it surpassed 800,000. In April, the attacks increased to 1.4 million.
4. Rise Of 176% In Malicious Office Document:
In Microsoft Office, an increasing number of enterprise security threats are reported by the internet security company SonicWall. The hackers tried to leverage the security gaps during the work from the home period of lockdown. This got an increase in the malicious document by 176%.
With Technology-Driven IT-enabled business failure of the software application causes million-dollar business loss plus question mark on reputation of the brand.
Coronavirus Scam In The USA:
During the coronavirus pandemic, many people from the USA lost thousands of dollars in online frauds and scams. As per the US Federal Trade Commission, the citizens of America lost more than $12 million in coronavirus scams.
Much fake news spread during the pandemic in the USA such as conspiracy theorists speculating government, 5G network is responsible for the spread of coronavirus. Thus, by visiting these all websites for more information, people lost thousand of money.
5. Impact On Loan Applicants:
According to the reports of the US Small Business Administration, over 8000 individuals got affected by loans. Especially those who applied for Economy Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL). The applicant’s details like physical address, email address, insurance information, and Social Security numbers were leaked.
6. WHO Email And Password Leaked:
World Health Organization reported the leak of 450 active emails along with the password on the online platform. This incident had a great impact on the WHO system as it was used by current WHO staff, retired personnel, and partners as well.
Almost 65% of the companies have 500 users who do not change their passwords. This can be a risk factor for leaking the information or being hacked.
7. Social Engineering Attacks:
Social Engineering and Disturbed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become the most common ones since COVID-19 hit the globe. As per the reports, over 34% of the internal actors were involved in data breaches.
Mirai Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) remains active with 16% of threat considered as the third most common IoT threat. It is also said that many companies require victims that pay $2,499 for the decryption key.
8. Spam And Phishing Attack At NHS:
The United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) hit more than 40,000 spam cases and phishing emails during the coronavirus pandemic. All these malicious spam and phishing email attacks affected the doctors, nurses, and many other personal.
Apart from this total amount of attacks, more than 21,188 email attacks came in March 2020 itself. All this information was revealed in the UK by the request of Freedom of Information at Parliament Street.
9. Healthcare And Finance Attack:
However, when the COVID-19 hit the globe, all the hospitals were filled with numerous patients. So, the industries that store healthcare and finance valuable information becomes a major target for hackers to steal medical records, Social Security numbers, and personal data.
Around 43% of the small business were breach victims. In the Finance and Healthcare area, over 352,771 and in Pharma and Biotech, over 113,491 files were hacked during a pandemic.
10. Zoom Accounts / Students Virtual Classes Attack:
As the studies get virtual due to pandemic, over 530,000+ zoom accounts were available on the Dark Side for sale. This attack has a huge number and was first noticed by the Security Firm.
Many misusing of the app attacks were also registered. As per the survey by online Security Firm Telemetry, about 20% of the security breaches at organizations were due to remote workers. Many other scams hindering the studies took place globally during a pandemic.
Takeaway: Hence, According to Vinsys this was all about the cybersecurity statistics during the spiraling panic during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope you understood how the security incidents and events bought an exponential change in the landscape in the 2020 pandemic.
