UN Reports Sharp Increase in Cybercrime During the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the March and June quarter earnings seasons, constituents in the Foxberry Tematica Research Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Index reported an upswing in demand due to a variety of issues associated with the COVID0-19 pandemic. The United Nations has only recently confirmed what those companies and others shared about the March 2020 quarter as it found a 350% increase in phishing attacks.
With the pandemic response that included lockdowns and sheltering in place growing in the first half of the June quarter, particularly in the US, as businesses contended with the coronavirus, we suspect the UN’s eventual findings for the June quarter will reveal a similar year over year increase in cyber attacks. As we have seen before, an individual’s or a company’s pain, is an opportunity for cyber attackers.
A 350% increase in phishing websites was reported in the first quarter of the year, many targeting hospitals and health care systems and hindering their work responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. counterterrorism chief said Thursday.
He said the U.N. and global experts don’t yet fully understand “the impact and consequences of the pandemic on global peace and security, and more specifically on organized crime and terrorism.”
Undersecretary-General Voronkov said the discussions showed a shared understanding and concern that “terrorists are generating funds from illicit trafficking in drugs, goods, natural resources and antiquities, as well as kidnapping for ransom, extorting and committing other heinous crimes.”
He said U.N. member nations “are rightly focused on tackling the health emergency and human crisis caused by COVID-19,” but he urged them not to forget the threat of terrorism.
Source: UN Reports Sharp Increase in Cybercrime During Pandemic – The New York Times
