While healthcare professionals, government leaders, and countless others have tirelessly worked to see us through the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s cybercriminals have been just as busy doing harm. In fact, and according to a new report from BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, “cybercrime has experienced a massive uptick of 74 percent among banks and insurers alike since the COVID-19 pandemic began.” That said, as we now return to some level of normalcy, it is more important than ever to safeguard precious assets, especially personal/consumer data, from malicious activities, and ultimately, financial loss. 

The report, entitled the COVID CRIME INDEX 2021 REPORT, focused on financial institutions and their customers over a one-year period, March 2020 through March 2021. Interestingly, it found that “upheavals caused by the pandemic have highlighted openings and insecurities in financial institutes’ networks, creating opportunity for fraud, risk, and cyberthreats.” Further, the report states that the situation “has been exacerbated by cuts of 26 percent to IT security, cybercrime, fraud, and risk department budgets at large, and personnel reductions of IT security teams among more than a third of those [902 organizations] surveyed.”

Contributing to the dramatic uptick in cybercrime during the COVID-19 pandemic are factors such as: 

  1. A remote working model, resulting in less security overall and reduced visibility of potential security gaps
  2. Highly targeted (individualized) scams, email hoaxes, and text/SMS attempts
  3. Increased online shopping, leading to more in exposure and therefore, more security vulnerabilities 

And the numbers published in the new report tell it all.