An assessment by Interpol shows that during the Corona crisis, cyber attacks shifted away from small companies and individuals to large companies, governments and critical infrastructures.
For the period from March to August 2020, the international police organization reported around 1 million spam messages, 750 incidents related to malware and 50,000 malicious URLs, all of which are said to be related to Covid-19. The rapid change from companies and authorities to home office and remote access to IT systems has been exploited to copy data, make profits and generally cause chaos.
Further Increase In Criminal Activity Is Very Likely In The Near Future
There has been a significant increase in cyber attacks who register domain names with keywords such as Coronavirus. Specifically, the increase was between 550 and 750 %, depending on the phase. These websites allow a lot of malicious activity like servers or the spread of malware and phishing, according to Interpol. Furthermore, a lot of fake news was written and distributed. The results of the report again underline the need for closer cooperation between the public and private sectors if we are to effectively combat the threat that COVID 19 also poses to our cyber health, said Interpol boss.
Misinformation
Unchecked information and conspiracy theories that were specifically disseminated for this purpose have also contributed to public fears and in some cases, facilitated cyber attacks, the report concludes. Just under 30 percent of countries that responded to the global cyber crime survey confirmed the spread of false information related to COVID-19.
Data Theft
The deployment of data collection malware such as Trojans and spyware by cyber criminals is increasing. With the help of COVID-19 related information, actors infiltrate systems to compromise networks, steal data, divert money and build botnets, writes Interpol.
