Security News > 2020 > July > Threat actors have evolved during the pandemic

McAfee Labs saw an average of 375 new threats per minute and a surge of cybercriminals exploiting the pandemic through COVID-19-themed malicious apps, phishing campaigns, malware, and more during the first quarter of 2020, the cybersecurity company is reporting.

Disclosed incidents targeting the public sector, individuals, education and manufacturing increased; nearly 47% of all publicly disclosed security incidents took place in the United States, according to the McAfee COVID-19 Threat Report: July 2020.

Each quarter, McAfee assesses the state of the cyber threat landscape based on in-depth research, investigative analysis, and threat data gathered by its Global Threat Intelligence cloud from over a billion sensors across multiple threat vectors around the world, the company said.

McAfee researchers found that COVID-19 campaigns use pandemic-related subjects including testing, treatments, cures, and remote work topics to lure targets into clicking on a malicious link, downloading a file, or viewing a PDF. To track these campaigns, McAfee Advanced Programs Group has published a COVID-19 Threat Dashboard, which includes top threats leveraging the pandemic, most targeted verticals and countries, and most utilized threat types and volume over time.

"The McAfee COVID-19 Threat Dashboard utilizes data to create true analyzed intelligence, which allows users to understand the total threat environment, informing them of potential threats before they are weaponized."

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https://www.techrepublic.com/article/threat-actors-have-evolved-during-the-pandemic/#ftag=RSS56d97e7