It’s no secret that global cyber-attacks have risen in the last six months amid the COVID-19 situation. Manufacturing and retail industries have, to date, seen the most attacks; but almost every business in the world has been affected in some way.

Cloud security experts Mimecast recently examined the first 100 days of the crisis, focusing on the patterns of scams between January and March in the build-up of the pandemic. The report noted a 26% increase in opportunistic detections, with impersonations up 30%. In total, detections had increased by a third.

It’s important to prepare yourself and your organisation for the inevitable, but it can be difficult to tell when and how you are being targeted. In recent months, cyber criminals have been targeting companies and workers that have shifted to remote working by using a variety of different methods and tactics to cause the most cause harm.

Industries such as manufacturing, retail and wholesale have been targeted heavily due to the near-normal continuation of operations during the height of the lockdown. The retail and manufacturing sectors account for nearly 20% of all the attacks in the first half of this year and are the most vulnerable industries right now. They’ve largely been victim to the ransomware attacks, similar to the attack on Honda in June. This ransomware is designed to block access to computers and software until a sum of money is paid. 

Cybercriminals are also taking advantage of the rising number of remote workers, using phishing emails targeted at work accounts to gain access to information. These types of attacks usually involve an employee clicking a link and providing data to what they believe is a legitimate source.

As far as phishing attacks go, they have never been more prominent than now. In order to drive down the number of successful attacks, companies must be willing to take steps to secure their organisations. Our email security solutions, focus on securing businesses using Microsoft 365 and other email software, protecting against phishing attacks and other attack methods, including malware, ransomware, and spam.

It offers:

• Targeted attack protection
The cloud-based Secure Email Gateway protects accounts by preventing suspicious emails before they even enter an employee’s inbox.

• Awareness training
Sometimes the most sophisticated attacks may make it through the gateway. We offer training for employees to help them identify threats and avoid human error breaches.

• Brand exploit protection
The gateway defences help to protect organisations by finding and neutralising brand imitations on the web.

It’s easier than you think to protect your business, regardless of your industry or business make-up. We can help you understand more about cyber security with advice as well as free trials  to allow you to see how security solutions can work for you.