Report: The cybersecurity impact of COVID-19

Cybersecurity company Cynet has released a report detailing changes in cyberattacks they’ve observed across North America and Europe since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report shares the cyberattack volume change observed across industry sectors, the increased use of spear phishing as an initial attack vector, and the approaches being used to distribute malware in spear phishing attacks.

Cybercriminals are pulling out their entire arsenal of new attack methods to best ensure attack success. In fact, Cynet found that new attacks jumped to roughly 35% of all attacks.

Another interesting observation in the report is a 250% spike in clients requesting expert assistance from their detection and response team.

Unfortunately, many companies do not yet have advanced detection and response technologies, such as Extended Detection and Response (XDR), or ongoing access to a 24×7 managed detection and response (MDR) team. When cyberattacks using new techniques spike as they are during this pandemic, companies without these advanced protections are at higher risk. We strongly recommend investigating both XDR and MDR solutions as way to future-proof and immunize your cybersecurity stack.