238% Increase in Cyberattacks on Financial Sector Amid COVID-19, Reports VMware Carbon Black
The global COVID-19 pandemic began as a health emergency, but has, over time transformed into an economic emergency with far-reaching negative consequences.
According to the Situational Threat Report Index released this May from Bain’s Macro Trends Group, “The economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic has been severe. Over 33 million Americans have filed unemployment claims in the last seven weeks, and the official US unemployment rate rose to 14.7% in April.” But another aspect that has also taken a toll is cyber security, what with a huge working population now working from home.
This has led to major security vulnerabilities- not just due to the systems but also due to the behavior of people, many of whom do not have adequate security training.
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Hackers usually see emergencies as an opportunity, and COVID-19 proved to be the same. “Our systems have detected 18 million malware and phishing Gmail messages per day related to COVID-19, in addition to more than 240 million COVID-related daily spam messages” says a release from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG).
In another research surveying 411 IT and security professionals globally, the cybersecurity solutions provider, Check Point Software, found out that 71% of security professionals reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. The report also revealed that 61% of respondents were concerned about the security risks of having to make rapid changes to enable remote working, 55% felt that remote access security needed improving,and 49% were concerned about the need to scale-up endpoint security.
The financial industry has proved to be among the worst hit by the rampant cybercrimes and ransomware attacks amidst COVID-19. VMware Carbon Black announced the release of the annual “Modern Bank Heists” report, which combines valued input from the financial industry’s top CISOs and security leaders with original VMware Carbon Black threat data analysis. In the third edition of the Modern Bank Heists annual report, conducted and produced by VMware Carbon Black, it was observed that attacks targeting the financial sector have grown by 238% from the beginning of February to the end of April 2020. The report also discovered that 82% of surveyed financial institutions said cybercriminals have become more sophisticated over the past 12 months.
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“Financial institutions have long been targets for cybercrime syndicates,” said Tom Kellermann, Head of Security Strategy, Security Business Unit, VMware. “Over the years, bank heists have escalated to virtual hostage situations where cybercrime groups and nation-states have attempted to commandeer digital transformation efforts. Now, as we address COVID-19’s impact on a global scale, it’s clear attackers are putting financial institutions directly in their crosshairs, according to our data.”
Other key findings from Carbon Black’s Modern Bank Heists report include:
- 27% of all cyber attacks have targeted either the healthcare sector or the financial sector in the year 2020
- 64% of respondents reported increased attempts of wire fraud transfer over the past 12 months
- 33% of surveyed respondents said they’ve encountered a cyber attack that leveraged island hopping (Island hopping are hacking campaigns where attackers usually exploit third parties that have a certain degree of access to the ultimate network target).
This study is one more validation of how cybercriminals are exploiting the ongoing global pandemic for vulnerabilities, and how urgent the need for improved security and risk management solutions have become to IT leaders and CISOs across industries.
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