The global spread of COVID-19 has created many new opportunities for threat actors since the novel coronavirus began gathering widespread attention at the end of 2019. Now, all organizations need to carefully review their multi-layered cybersecurity strategies and arm employees with knowledge of how to protect themselves against these specific attacks. Increases in coronavirus-related spam and impersonation attack campaigns are exploiting the vulnerability of users working at home, taking advantage of their desire for information about the coronavirus pandemic to entice them to click on unsafe links. Traditional fraudsters are also using spam to offer fake or non-existent goods such as protective masks or COVID-19 cures. To provide a clear picture of how malicious actors are exploiting those opportunities, the Mimecast Threat Intelligence team analyzed key trends in activity over the first 100 days. The monthly volume of all the detection categories reviewed increased significantly – by 33% –between January and the end of March 2020.
