Impact of Covid-19 Web Threats on Cybersecurity, A Report from Beginning to End

Until the first quarter of 2020, the FBI’s cyber division reported a 3-4 times surge in cyberattacks complaints since the start of Covid-19. According to Interpol and FBI data, there has been a massive increase in ransomware, phishing, DDoS and malware attacks; since the coronavirus pandemic. Hackers used email platforms to carry out their web threats. 

Interpol reports, “Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the widespread global communications on the coronavirus to mask their activities. Hospitals, medical centers, and public institutions are being targeted by cybercriminals for ransomware attacks – since they are overwhelmed with the health crisis and cannot afford to be locked out of their systems, the criminals believe they are likely to pay the ransom. The ransomware can enter their systems through emails containing infected links or attachments, compromised employee credentials, or exploiting a system’s vulnerability.”  

Most of the attacks are disguised under the theme of Covid-19. Hackers copy fake organization platforms like WHO to commit frauds and target victims. Via these platforms, the hackers lure their victims into transferring money, providing banking details, stealing personal user data. All these attacks resulted in making COVID-19 themed attacks the highest in 2020. 

Hackers use panic and fear to target their victims. The malware and phishing attacks during the Covid-19 pandemic prove that attackers use fear to intimidate their targets. In March alone, experts discovered more than 40000 high risk and 2000 malicious domains. In April 2020, Google reported around 240 million coronaviruses themed malware and spams. Google website says, “Every day, Gmail blocks more than 100 million phishing emails. During the last week, we saw 18 million daily malware and phishing emails related to COVID-19. This is in addition to more than 240 million COVID-related daily spam messages. Our ML models have evolved to understand and filter these threats, and we continue to block more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware from reaching our users.”