Security News > 2020 > July > Sharp Spike in Ransomware in U.S. as Pandemic Inspires Attackers

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to shape the face of cybercrime in 2020, with ransomware and attacks on internet of things devices seeing sharp increases in the U.S. for the first half of the year.

According to SonicWall's 2020 Cyber Threat Report ransomware attacks are up, particularly in the U.S., where they have more than doubled year-over-year.

Some countries are doing better than others on that front; for instance, ransomware in the U.K has fallen by 6 percent year-over-year, to 5.9 million, and in other places it's dropped by nearly half.

In North America, ransomware is up 105 percent - including the aforementioned 109 percent increase in the United States, where it rose to 80 million attacks.

"Asia saw the first COVID-19 cases, and ransomware numbers there spiked in January and March. The pandemic hit Europe next, and we see corresponding spikes there in February and April. In North America, ransomware attacks started low in January, but by March they had nearly tripled, continuing to make more modest gains through April and May before slowing a slight decrease in June, when numbers fell to their lowest point since March."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/sharp-spike-ransomware-pandemic-inspires-attackers/157689/