COVID-19 Cyber Threats Increase by 30,000%

According to experts from Zscaler, a company specializing in cloud security, the number of cyberattacks related to the coronavirus pandemic has skyrocketed by a record 30,000% since the beginning of the year, when the first threats and “bait” of this kind started to appear.

In March alone, researchers recorded around 380,000 attacks and malware incidents connected to COVID-19. For comparison, in February there were about 10,000 such attacks.

“No, that’s not a typo. Since January, we’ve seen a 30,000% increase in phishing, malicious websites, and malware targeting remote users and related to COVID-19. In January, we detected and blocked only 1,200 such attacks. How many did we find in March? 380,000!” wrote Zscaler experts.

Phishing and Malware Targeting Businesses

Overall, Zscaler specialists observed an 85% increase in phishing attacks related to the pandemic and aimed at corporate users. The number of malicious websites and blocked malware samples rose by 25%. Threats targeting corporate users exclusively increased by 17%.

Researchers also noted that since January, more than 130,000 suspicious domains related to COVID-19 have been registered, including those containing words like “test,” “mask,” “Wuhan,” “kit,” and others.

Financial Losses and Email Threats

According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which compiled complaints from victims, more than $19 million has already been lost to coronavirus-related fraud since January 2020. Last week, Google engineers reported that Gmail blocked over 18 million phishing and malware emails with coronavirus themes in just one week.