Security News > 2020 > May > Cybercriminals timed attacks to spike during peak uncertainty about the coronavirus
Bad actors matched their cyber attack strategy with the increasing uncertainty of the coronavirus epidemic, according to a new analysis from Mimecast.
Over the 14 weeks that Mimecast analyzed, detections increased during seven weeks, decreased during five weeks, and showed no change during two weeks.
The banking vertical and the professional services sector faced the most attacks during the first week of the year.
Week 6, Feb. 3-9 was one of the worst weeks for attacks, which was immediately after the first reports of COVID-19 infections in the UK, Italy, and Spain, as increasing uncertainty made it more likely that people would be more likely to fall for social engineering attacks as they looked for information about the outbreak.
Impersonation attacks were high throughout the time frame analyzed in the report, and the authors suggest that the "Declaration of the pandemic has given the shift to this attack vector a renewed impetus and importance." The authors wrote that threat actors also are exploiting this period of increased disruption and uncertainty to attempt ransomware insertion to any vertical possible through the increased use of all potential attack vectors.