iTWire Thursday, 08 April 2021 22:19 New Bitdefender report reveals top global cyberthreats
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The new report outlines how ransomware, malicious spam, mobile malware and other threats to consumers evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bitdefender. It s a global cybersecurity company protecting hundreds of millions of endpoints and systems worldwide, and like other security companies, releases regular reports.
Its latest report is the 2020 Consumer Threat Landscape Report , revealing the top cybersecurity threats, the frequency of threats and the cybercrime trends of 2020.
Bogdan Botezatu, director of threat research and reporting at Bitdefender said: Our 2020 findings depict consumers under constant assault from cybercriminals looking to capitalise on fear and societal uncertainty accompanying the global pandemic.
New Bitdefender Report Reveals Top Global Cyberthreats
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New Report Outlines How Ransomware, Malicious Spam, Mobile Malware and Other Threats to Consumers Evolved During the COVID-19 Pandemic
BUCHAREST, Romania and SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Bitdefender, a leading global cybersecurity company protecting hundreds of millions of endpoints and systems worldwide, today released the 2020 Consumer Threat Landscape Report, revealing top cybersecurity threats, frequency of threats and cybercrime trends of 2020. Our 2020 findings depict consumers under constant assault from cybercriminals looking to capitalize on fear and societal uncertainty accompanying the global pandemic, said Bogdan Botezatu, director of threat research and reporting at Bitdefender. Cybercriminals will stop at nothing to use outlier events and human empathy to line their pockets. As the pandemic continues we are constantly seeing
Ransomware Attacks Grew by 485% in 2020
Interestingly, nearly two-thirds (64%) of the ransomware attacks took place in the first two quarters of 2020.
The report, which analyzed data from Bitdefender’s Global Protective Network (GPN), revealed that proprietary operating systems used in IoT devices made up 96% of all detected vulnerabilities, while a 335% surge in Smart TV vulnerabilities occurred compared to 2019.
The researchers also looked at how malicious actors utilized social engineering techniques last year. Android was especially heavily targeted to spread malware and malicious apps in this way, experiencing a 32% growth in reported threats during the second half of 2020. Many of these involved impersonating popular video conferencing software and medical apps, especially during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, April and May accounted for 14% and 12% of the total number of Android reports last year.