The latest malware statistics show that COVID-19 has transformed the face of cybercrime. The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the whole meaning of cybercrime and cybersecurity in 2020. With attacks on the internet of things (IoT) devices and ransomware, risks are seeing sharp increases for the first half of the year in the U.S.
According to Cyber Threat Report by SonicWall’s 2020, the ransomware attacks are up, particularly in the U.S., as they have more than doubled year-over-year up to 109%. Meanwhile, the malware targeting IoT devices has gone up to 20.2 million, up 50% from this time last year – as the cybercriminals target the massive influx of remote working employees.
At the same time, crypto mining and encrypted malware have seen resurgences after dropping off late last year. Interestingly, the amount of malware picked up in SonicWall’s telemetry overall is down for the year. In fact, during this year’s first half, malware fell from 4.8 billion to 3.2 billion cases across the globe, a drop of 33% over 2019’s mid-year total.
