According to a recent report by McAfee, there has been a 114 per cent increase in the Covid-19-themed cyber-attack in Q4 2020. This was followed by a 240 per cent increase in Q3 2020 and 605 per cent in Q2 2020.
In its recent release Threats Report: April 2021, McAfee examined cybercriminal activity related to malware and the evolution of cyber threats in the Q3, Q4 2020.
While, in Q4 2020, the report observed an average of 648 threats per minute, an increase of 60 threats per minute (10 per cent) over Q3 2020. Further, Powershell threats surged 208 per cent due to continued increases in Donoff malware activity. Further, during the Q4 2020 McAfee tracked a 100 per cent increase in publicly reported cyber incidents targeting the technology sector. The incidents in the sector grew by 93 per cent over the same period. Besides, malware was the most reported cause of security incidents in Q4 2020 followed by account hijackings, targeted attacks and vulnerabilities. Incidents related to new vulnerabilities surged 100 per cent in Q4 2020, malware and targeted attacks each rose by 43 per cent, and account hijackings increased by 30 per cent.
