McAfee Labs COVID-19 Threats Report

Key Findings

• Cybercriminals leverage pandemic as entry mechanism into systems across the globe
• McAfee Advanced Programs Group releases daily COVID-19 threat dashboard
• Ransomware attacks evolve into data breaches as cybercriminals steal data prior to encryption
• New PowerShell malware increases 689% while total malware grows 1,902% over four quarters
• Disclosed incidents targeting public sector increase 73%, individuals +59%, education +33%
• Nearly 47% of all publicly disclosed security incidents take place in the United States
• Threats targeting cloud services increase 630%, concentrate largely on collaboration services such as Microsoft 365

McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, has released its McAfee COVID-19 Threat Report: July 2020 examining cybercriminal activity related to COVID-19 and the evolution of cyber threats in Q1 2020. 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. New PowerShell malware increased 688% over the course of the quarter while total malware grew 1,902% over the past four quarters. 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.

“Thus far, the dominant themes of the 2020 threat landscape have been cybercriminal’s quick adaptation to exploit the pandemic and the considerable impact cyberattacks have had,” said Raj Samani, McAfee fellow and chief scientist. “What began as a trickle of phishing campaigns and the occasional malicious app quickly turned into a deluge of malicious URLs and capable threat actors leveraging the world’s thirst for more information on COVID-19 as an entry mechanism into systems across the globe.”

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

Download the report to find more information.