The spread of Covid-19 It has not only generated changes in the modus operandi of business from a productive and financial point of view; also in safety matter. But in this situationhow the pandemic is affecting Online Security?

And it is that it has verified that during this situation of the Coronavirus, the target of hackers has been corporate networks. Despite the fact that teleworking has become one of the modalities most adopted by organizations so as not to paralyze their operations.

Discover how the pandemic is affecting Online Security

Since the state of emergency was declared, there has been a increase in malicious domains and phishing campaigns. In fact, these attacks have reached their highest point in the last two years. Presenting an increase of 3.3 million in the last quarter of last year, which is equivalent to an increase of 90%.

These numbers make it clear that the business sector has to emphasize the maintenance and strengthening of its network-based security systems. Regardless of the fact that remote work is the wisest alternative to stop during the pandemic.

However, knowing how the pandemic is affecting Online Security helps companies get a better picture of how hackers are adjusting their tactics. These are some of their most used strategies:

They take advantage of fear and uncertainty

Take advantage of the fear and doubts that people have regarding Covid-19 It has been one of the main tactics used by attackers to deceive their potential victims.

At the end of last year, a phishing attack using Microsoft SharePoint to host a fake login page that appears to be from the UN. Even in the mailbox you could see messages of help to SMEs attached to the United Nations, given the Covid.

Phishing attacks and malicious links

Some of the answers about how the pandemic is affecting Online Security They range from large financial losses to loss of trust and credibility. Just for the simple action of clicking on phishing cyberattacks and malicious links.

According to service reports DNSWatch de WatchGuard, during the last quarter of last year, came to block a total of 2 million 764 thousand 736 malicious domain connections. Which represents around 499 blocked per company.

Based on this data, each company is believed to have reached 262 malicious domains, 71 affected websites, and accidentally involved in 52 phishing campaigns. phishing.

They look for vulnerable SCADA systems

In the United States, it has been detected that attackers prioritize their searches to find vulnerabilities in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA).

And although these weaknesses are not as fatal as a remote code execution error. Cyber ​​criminals can damage the image of companies once they take control of SCADA software which runs on the server.

Now, how the pandemic is affecting Online Security in 2021? Open to wait for the first quarter reports, however, experts think that hackers will focus on breaking into organizations' SCADAs during this year in order to have access to confidential information that they can take advantage of.

Appearance of new malware

In the development of the pandemic New malware has appeared that has achieved its goals, such as Emotet; a banking Trojan that acts as a password stealer and is capable of taking measures to bypass antivirus controls and trick victims into installing it on their computers.

In the list of WatchGuard about the most widespread malware detections in the online ecosystem appears this new malware. It is even believed that it has possibly been directed at more banking institutions than the data shows.

Conclusions

The purpose of unraveling how the pandemic is affecting Online Security It lies in taking the necessary measures and applying efficient defense practices that allow both SMEs and large companies to protect themselves against the modern security dawns found on the network.

Of course, there is no normality in terms of online security, but organizations must focus on increasing protection both at the endpoint and on the network to reduce the chances of falling victim to these attacks.

It is also essential that they establish an approach capable of protecting sensitive information, how? turning to services that can detect evasive and encrypted attacks such as advanced phishing campaigns.

Lastly, in combination with these protection tactics, it really is very important to deploy DNS filtering services and provide security training to employees, so that they are not easy prey for hackers and help maintain security. online security of companies.