Many cyber criminals are reacting to the crisis triggered by the coronavirus by changing their tactics, according to Eset. This is also felt by many companies that are still heavily dependent on working from home and on reliable remote connections. For their part, cyber criminals are trying everything to take advantage of the current changes. In the past few months, web and e-mail attacks in particular, but also attacks on the Remote Desktop Protocol from Microsoft have increased, the security provider Eset reports.
Cyber Criminals Would Quickly Adapt To The New Situation
Every reason is right for phishing, data theft, malware and ransomware. This has now been confirmed by the current Eset Threat Report for the second quarter of 2020. According to the researchers, the new target is the RDP, which is now often used for remote access from the home office.
Attacks to exploit Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), used in remote access to corporate networks, continued to rise. RDP usage doubled due to remote work environments.
Attackers used EternalBlue and BlueKeep attacks to take advantage of the increased network surface due to increased usage.
The researchers recorded a particularly high increase in phishing emails. Mainly, the criminals would currently rely on messages that at first glance come from the parcel delivery service DHL. They usually contain attachments such as DHL receipt or DHL document with fake forms to steal the login information for the online services offered by DHL. These types of attacks have increased since the beginning of the year, reports Eset.
In home office times, many employees now do most of their work by remote access to the company network using remote access methods such as RDP. Nevertheless, Eset warns; companies often neglect their configuration, protection and this is known in cybercrime circles. According to the researchers, ransomware groups in particular are trying to capitalize on this: the number of attempted attacks has doubled since the beginning of the year.
The company also registered an increase in attacks on remote connections in which RDP and other protocols are used. Many companies would neglect the secure configuration of these services, criticizes Eset. In the second quarter of this year, the security company observed an increase in attacks against Android devices. They have increased by 20 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. New banking Trojans have been observed particularly frequently here. In other cases, malware presented itself as a serious Corona app.