Lock Down
Corporate hacking surges are becoming more frequent. Work-from-home policies have contributed to a large surge in hacking against corporations. Many staff have made the transition to working from their homes amidst the global covid-19 pandemic. As a result we are seeing malicious activity more than double in many countries.
Malware Surges
Phishing attacks have risen an unprecedented 667% in the UK compared to February 2020. Ransomware attacks are increasing. A rise of 148% in March alone from the previous month according to the VMware Carbon Black is unprecedented. The coronavirus outbreak continues to spread and has claimed almost 2.3 million lives worldwide. Governments lock down their populations and limit their movements in response.
Security Decentralisation
Due to the wide variance in workers’ home setups and the different hardware they use, corporations and their dedicated security teams are struggling to protect company data as it is dispersed over vast networks even when it is protected by virtual private networks (VPNs). It doesn’t help that home networks are simply much easier to crack than large corporate networks that have centralised security protocols on site in constant operation. This also contributes to corporate hacking surges.
Opportunists
Bad actors and malicious hackers always do well during times of national hardship such as the threat of political unrest, or economic downturn, as they capitalise on the fear of their victims who are more likely to fall for scams as they act rashly amidst the panic. The confusion and anxiety that a global pandemic, such as the one we are seeing now, only fuels these emotions that trick them into giving up their credentials and potentially valuable sensitive corporate data.
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Author: Matthew Protheroe-Hill on 7th February 2021
