As the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions have been eased, it’s important to note that the risk of cyber threats has considerably increased as cyber criminals continue to plant malicious activity over the internet.

Thanks to eScan’s security experts, here’s a summary of the cyber-threats that have taken place over the last 5 months.

• According to reports, there’s been a massive rise in cloud-based cyber attacks in the first four months of the year 2020. These cyber-attacks have targeted cloud based accounts with important credentials and other cloud-based services.
• To lure Victims in various phishing and malware attacks, cybercriminals have also impersonated various video conferencing apps.
• Cyber-attack campaigns have leveraged fake VPN apps and unpatched VPN’s.
• Since the start of the outbreak, around 100,000-150,000 attacks have occured on the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

This pandemic has also witnessed cybercriminals deploying old malware with brand new campaigns, to prey on people’s fear, confusion and uncertainty. Recently, a variety of key loggers, ransomware, and data stealers were also discovered. Researchers have also proven that activities of backdoor malware NetWiredRC, which was last spotted in 2019 spiked by 200% during the pandemic period. Another trojan that’s detected is the AveMaria, which has spiked by 110% in this period. It’s capable of stealing passwords, by providing remote desktop access and remote webcam control. Another invasive Trojan, the Danabot which is an information stealer Trojan can swipe online banking account details and this period saw its activity rise by 160%.

Other information-stealing malware like TrickBot, LokiBot, and AZORult also made comebacks during this period.

Cybercriminals found a new method to deliver their attacks in this time frame by hiding it in COVID-19 maps. However, phishing campaigns were still the most popular mode of delivery of an attack. Attacks on online retailers and banks increased by 20% during the pandemic, putting home shoppers at a greater risk than ever.

That’s why it’s important to secure your IT systems with a comprehensive Anti-Virus software that’s capable of protecting your systems in these challenging times.