Microsoft (MS) the Technology Giant of America has stated in its recent blog post that there has been a rise in COVID 19 themed cyber attacks from early February or from the day WHO declared to the world that there was a global health emergency- Corona Pandemic was spreading at an alarming rate.
Prudently the software giant claimed in its report that the attacks were low at first as the share market started to tumble with more investors taking an exit. However, the situation gradually changed from the 1st week of March as MS claims that its sensors have witnessed a million attacks daily.
But in April this year the attacks seem to have taken a downward curve as the COVID 19 crisis slowly started to take a toll on countries forcing them to a total lockdown- raising a complexity barrier for hackers targeting corporate employees.
For several weeks this situation continued, but from the second week of May 2020, things started to turn in favor of hackers as companies started to operate with minimal staff as they started to digest the fact that they need to live with the Wuhan Virus to make a livelihood.
Redmond giant Microsoft says that it has started to observe around 12 million attacks every day, an increase in 30% over February this year- clearly stating the fact that cybercriminals were trying to capitalize on every opportunity related to the Pandemic.
MS clearly states in its report that the best defense to prevent from being targeted with COVID 19 themed cyber attacks was to educate and keep the device updated with all necessary and available security fixes. Also, make sure that your data is backed up to a physical backup data appliance or a cloud as it helps in recovering it if/when the need arises.
