Mimecast reports a 26.3% increase in spams and opportunist cybercrimes during the first 100 days of COVID-19

With the current pandemic going on, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the situation escalating their malicious activities. According to the “100 Days of Coronavirus” report by Mimecast, the volume of malicious cybercrime activities has increased significantly by 33% from January to March 2020.

Mimecast’s Threat Intelligence Team has seen a significant increases in cyber attacks in Sub-Saharan Africa. https://t.co/z7chtRv7SH

— ITWeb News Publication (@ITWeb) May 7, 2020

The presented report highlights how con artists are continuously exploiting the ongoing pandemic and fulfilling their malicious intents. Moreover, the report presents a detailed analysis of various cybercrime trends in different regions. According to Mimecast Threat Intelligence team, the volume of

• Opportunist cybercrime and spam detected increased by 26.3 percent
• Malware detection is increased by 35.16 percent
• Impersonation fraud detections are 30.3 percent up
• URL clicks blocking increased by 55.8 percent that means people are more likely to click on malicious links during this outbreak, and
• Over 115,000 Covid-19 related spoof domains have been detected since January

Mimecast head of e-crime, Carl Wearn stated,

“Many employees that suddenly find themselves working from home, are not sufficiently equipped or aware of cyber threats and may put their organizations at risk by engaging in unsafe behavior. Considering the rise in threats and unsafe clicks as shown by the report, there is an urgent need for organizations to step up their cybersecurity awareness training efforts to ensure employees have the tools and knowledge to avoid risky online behavior.”

The report highlighted the notable increase of 36 percent and 22 percent in spam and malware detection respectively, in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition, a 751% increase in unsafe clicks is reported by Mimecast. Analyzing the situation, Wearn stated,

“This is likely an indication of people letting their guards down and desperate to learn more, as communication channels were flooded with information – both legitimate and fake – about the virus”