The Effect of Cyberattacks During COVID-19 | Antivirus Software

Cyberattacks Statistics

The cybersecurity threats evolve daily in both quantity and sophistication. According to Fortinet figures, in 2019 alone, 85 billion attempted cyberattacks were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2019, of which 1.5 billion occurred in Chile, and most were designed to enter banking networks, obtain information financially, and steal money.

The worrying panorama that has intensified in recent months, as cybercriminals are taking advantage of the fact that people now use the web more to telecommute or entertain themselves during the quarantine. This is confirmed by the statistics.

Motivations Behind Cyberattacks

According to cyber-attack statistics compiled by Hackmageddon, ransomware campaigns related to the COVID-19 pandemic moved the motivations behind the attacks with an increase from 80.8% in January to 88.7% in February. 

Cyber ​​espionage grew from 8.6% to 10.2% in the same period of time, while cyber warfare (computer warfare) and hacktivism are types of cybercrime that have only increased by 0.5% each.

Cyber ​​attack Techniques

The same statistics place malware as the most common attack technique, with an increase from 35.1% in January to 40.3% in February. It is followed by cybercrime related to account hijacking, with an increase from 15.2% to 21%. 

Information security experts say that the increase in attacks of this type related to COVID-19 " is the worst seen in years ." Just to exemplify, figures from Bitdefender, a global cyber-surveillance company located in Romania, show that attacks of this type associated with reports on fake emails and sites with coronavirus information have increased their rates by 475%.

Phishing is Not Far Behind

Finally, it should be noted that the World Health Organization and sites such as Worldmeters.info - which publishes updated data on the pandemic - have been attacked in recent days, as well as universities, hospitals, financial institutions, laboratories, etc. 

A representative case in this regard was the attempted computer hijacking of health entities in Spain, and the Ransomware attack that forced Finestra, a  company that offers services to more than 90 of the world's leading banks in 130 countries, to stop operations. 

Given the increase in teleworking due to COVID-19, more malicious campaigns are registered. People need to learn how to protect themselves from cyberattacks,  and actions they can take include:

• Establish standards and protocols regarding security.
• Get trained in cybersecurity.
• Updating of equipment and installation of cybersecurity tools, such as firewalls and antivirus software.
• Use of strong passwords.
• Extreme precautions when opening emails from strangers.
• Make backup copies of information.

Finally, the best option when thinking about how to protect yourself from cyberattacks is to hire a service expert. It is a comprehensive solution to keep the degree of exposure to cybersecurity threats under control.

Through a comprehensive approach, covering different types of cybercrime, a service expert acts proactively by detecting vulnerabilities in the IT environment. This considerably reduces the chances of the system being compromised causing significant financial loss and reputational damage.