COVID-19 Phishing Attacks Increase By 667%

New Delhi: Amid the coronavirus outbreak across the world, the number of COVID-19-related email attacks has increased by 667 per cent. According a report, the COVID-19 phishing attacks increased since the end of February.

A variety of phishing campaigns are taking advantage of the heightened focus on COVID-19 to distribute malware, steal credentials, and scam users out of money said the report from Barracuda Networks, a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions.

The attacks use common phishing tactics that are seen regularly. However, a growing number of campaigns are using the coronavirus as a lure to try to trick distracted users capitalise on the fear and uncertainty of their intended victims.

Between March 1 and March 23, Barracuda researchers detected 467,825 spear-phishing email attacks, and 9,116 of those detections were related to COVID-19, representing about 2 per cent of attacks.

In comparison, a total of 1,188 coronavirus-related email attacks were detected in February, and just 137 were detected in January.

Although the overall number of these attacks is still low compared to other threats, the threat is growing quickly, the report added.

Barracuda researchers said they have seen three main types of phishing attacks using coronavirus COVID-19 themes — scamming, brand impersonation, and business email compromise.

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Of the coronavirus-related attacks detected by Barracuda Sentinel through March 23, 54 per cent were scams, 34 per cent were brand impersonation attacks, 11 per cent were blackmail, and 1 per cent are business email compromise.

COVID-19 Effect: India Networking Market Falls 22.5% In Q4 2019: IDC

India's networking market which includes ethernet switch, routers, and WLAN segments witnessed a 22.5 per cent year-over-year (YoY) decline in Q4 of 2019, a new IDC report said on Thursday.

The decline was majorly contributed by the router segment due to huge one-time investments that happened during Q4, said IDC.

A slowdown in the telecommunications spending due to the AGR dues also played a major role in the decline of the overall networking market.

"The enterprise emphasis on digital transformation has been purely driven by the end-users' need to have a seamless experience.

"Networks are at the forefront of this digital transformation enabling a tremendous amount of data being transferred between the edge, data center, and cloud. Technologies like W-Fi 6 and 5G will enable faster data transfers thereby enabling organizations to make quicker business decisions," Sudharsan Raghunathan, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India, said in a statement.

Cisco continued to dominate the Ethernet Switch market with a 49.9 per cent share, followed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Huawei.

Other categories like switching and WLAN had a YoY decline of 3.7 per cent and 13.1 per cent, respectively.

During Q4, India did not see any shift in buying behaviour because of the COVID-19.

However, it is expected that the pandemic will soften buying behaviour during the first half of 2020, said the report.

(With Agency Inputs)

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