BUSINESS
SURVEILLANCE
COVID-19 CYBERATTACKS
ARE PLACING
ORGANISATIONS AT
INCREASED RISK
Security professionals across the Middle East must
educate employees about the rise in Coronavirusrelated
cybercrime and how to avoid placing their
organisation at risk. Werno Gevers, Cybersecurity
Specialist at Mimecast, explains.
rganisations
O
are already
facing business
challenges in
the wake of the
Coronavirus
pandemic,
and a rapid rise in COVID-19 related
cyberattacks is causing additional stress.
A new report from the Mimecast Threat
Intelligence Centre, entitled 100 Days of
Coronavirus, tracks cybercrime activity
since the start of the outbreak.
It found that between January and
March 2020, global monthly volumes
of spam and opportunistic cybercrime
detections increased by 26.3%,
impersonation fraud detections
increased by 30.3%, malware detections
increased by 35.16% and the blocking
of URL clicks increased by 55.8%.
In addition, over 115,000 COVID-19
related spoof domains, designed
to steal personal information, were
detected over the three-month period.
Focusing on the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA), the Threat Intelligence
team saw notable increases in malware
(22%) and spam (36%) during February
and March, when the virus started
spreading in the region. Shockingly,
there was a 751% increase in unsafe
clicks during the first three months of
the year – likely as a result of a rise in
human error caused by stress, unusual
working environments and our desire to
stay informed.
Cybercriminals feed on
people’s fears
Phishing scams often tap into whatever
is currently making headlines.
Thankfully employees’ awareness of
cybersecurity continues to grow, but
Werno Gevers, Cybersecurity Specialist
at Mimecast
criminals are making the most of the
current situation by feeding on people’s
fears and anxiety. In short, people just
aren’t thinking straight.
We’re also getting used to receiving
emails from employers, authorities
and just about every brand we’ve ever
interacted with, about their response to
COVID-19. Bad actors know this and are
impersonating these organisations with
the aim of getting concerned citizens to
click on malicious links.
Between March 9 and 20, we saw a
234% increase in daily registrations of
new Coronavirus-related web domains
and subdomains at more than 6,100 a
day. While some of these 60,000+ sites
were legitimate, the majority weren’t.
Links were used to capture credentials,
62 Issue 28 | www.intelligentciso.com