Cybercrime is rising, and as drastically as the COVID-19 pandemic took traffic off the highways and patrons out of their favorite restaurants, it’s added masses of people to online hacker forums.
The FBI is reporting “Instances of cybercrime appear to have jumped by as much as 300 percent since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic.” Before the COVID-19 shut down, IC3 (the FBI’s Internet Crime Complain Center) received an average of 1,000 complaints per day.
IC3 is currently receiving between 3,000-4,000 complaints on daily basis.
The FBI has attributed much of this increase to the fact that “America’s daily activities increasingly moving online,” however, a huge percent of that population are “newly remote workers unaware of basic security measures or companies struggling to keep externally-accessed systems secure.”
It’s also been mentioned by the FBI that “a lot of the increased cybercrime is coming from nation states seeking out COVID-19-related research.”
Tonya Ugoretz, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber Division, has said “Countries have a very high interest in information on the virus … such as information on a vaccine. We have certainly seen reconnaissance activity and some intrusions into some of those institutions, especially those who have identified themselves as working on COVID research.”
Being a leader in technology and medicine for most of the free world, means we’re one of the largest targets. As this pandemic continues to unfold, we can only anticipate an increase in the onslaught.
Attacks on businesses in healthcare have also been rampant, targeting the World Health Organization and Department of Health and Human Services. Ugoretz says IC3 has seen the most increase in COVID-19 related phishing emails, which had success in Germany, “potentially losing millions of euros earmarked for COVID-19 financial aid.”
The best possible solution to avoid cyber-security threats, is proper training, and an imperative to think before you click.
If you need help with cybersecurity training for your staff contact [email protected].
-Emmy Seigler
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/fbi-sees-cybercrime-reports-increase-fourfold-during-covid-19-outbreak/ar-BB12Uxdh