Lockdown Sees Spurt in Cybercrimes

Kerala records highest number of attacks, followed by Punjab and Tamil Nadu, finds a study

While the sudden outbreak and spread of Covid-19 has led to a continuing lockdown in India, the situation has exposed the netizens to cybercrimes in the country, with Kerala recording the highest number of cyberattacks during this period, finds a study by IT security solutions provider K7 Computing. The report analyses various cyberattacks within India during the pandemic and reveals that threat actors targeted the state with Covid-19 themed attacks aimed at exploiting user trust.

The sudden surge in the frequency of attacks witnessed from February 2020 to mid-April 2020 indicates that scamsters across the world were exploiting the widespread panic around coronavirus at both the individual and corporate level. These attacks aimed to compromise computers and mobile devices to gain access to users’ confidential data, banking details, and cryptocurrency accounts. The key threats seen during this period ranged from phishing attacks to rogue apps disguised as Covid-19 information apps that targeted users’ sensitive data.