Wave of attacks by cybercriminals in pandemic gaining momentum

Last year turned out to be a record year in terms of the number of cybercrimes. The FBI's annual Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report shows that in 2020, victims of cybercrime in the US lost a total of $4.1 billion during the year. That's about $700 million. more than in 2019. The number of complaints received by IC3 has also increased significantly.

“IC3 received a record number of nearly 792,000 complaints from Americans in 2020. This means a 69 percent increase in the number of complaints compared to 2019. Losses resulting from cybercrimes exceeded $4.1 billion,” Paul Abbate, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation., listed.

This is largely the result of a pandemic, remote work, or increasingly popular communication platforms. The Zoom application, a virtual meeting place, has been a constant target of various cyber-attacks. There was a massive data breach in April 2020. Over 500,000 Zoom passwords have been stolen, sold, and even distributed for free on the dark web forums. Victims' login details, personal meeting URLs, and host keys are shared.

“Cybercriminals in a pandemic are using our addiction to technology to plunge into internet crime,” Paul Abbate emphasized.

(Newseria)