![]() In the year 2020, there was about 1001 frequency of data breaches in the United States. Hackers can then gain unrestricted access to critical business assets and data of the victim’s organization by impersonating a genuine employee. Unfortunately, when employees click on such links, they ignorantly download keylogging software onto their computers or devices, giving hostile actors access to their credentials. In the case of the phishing attack, hackers used harmful links hidden in carefully designed emails to target company employees. Hackers were busy launching and trying their hands on different variants of cyber-attacks such as phishing, malware, distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS), denial-of-service (DoS), advanced persistent threat (APT), malicious social media messaging (MSMM), business email compromise (BEC), botnet, ransomware amongst many others. Many types of cyber-attack took place day and night during the peak period of the global COVID-19 crisis. As a result of the COVID-19, email phishing threats were the most common source of data breaches while working from home because of the national lockdown. ![]() The healthcare and banking industries were the most vulnerable to cyber-attacks. COVID-19 has already been dubbed the world's biggest cybersecurity threat. Bustling streets were deserted, hospital beds were overflowing, and shops were shuttered. That week, everything changed in the world. COVID-19 was declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. The COVID-19 outbreak began to make international headlines in January 2020. With these eye-opening 2020 cybersecurity figures, one can observe the impact of COVID-19 on individuals, businesses, and the entire world, even in its early phases. The picture of cybersecurity threats in 2020 has mirrored that of the previous economic downturn. Cybercriminals take advantage of social flaws, and thus, the coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19, is no exception. Take for instance, the global economic crisis in 2008 resulted in cyber-attacks as corporation capital declined and citizens became an easy target ( Ng and Kwok, 2017, Thakur et al., 2016, Das, 2015, Watters et al., 2012). In times of crisis, an upsurge in cyber-attacks is usual. Hence, this study's findings will guide the creation, development, and implementation of more secure systems to safeguard people from cyber-attacks. ![]() The study recommends that it will continue to be necessary for governments and organizations to be resilient and innovative in cybersecurity decisions to overcome the current and future effects of the pandemic or similar crisis, which could be long-lasting. BEC frequency was 4%, Ransomware with 2%, Botnet scored 2% and APT recorded 1%. Mobile apps followed with 8%, Phishing was 7%, Malware 7%, Browsing apps with 6%, DDoS has 6%, Website apps with 6%, and MSMM with 6%. Next was Spam emails attack with 13% emails with 13% followed by malicious domains with 9%. The result show differences in cyber-attack techniques as hacking attacks was the most frequent with a record of 330 out of 895 attacks, accounting for 37%. The data was generated between March 2020 and December 2021, from a global survey through online contact and responses, especially from different organizations and business executives. Using a multi-criteria decision-making problem-solving technique, many facets of cybersecurity that have been affected during the pandemic were then quantitatively ranked in ascending order of severity. A qualitative methodology was used to provide a robust response to the objective used for the study. An intense look into the recent advances that cybercriminals leverage, the dynamism, calculated measures to tackle it, and never-explored perspectives are some of the integral parts which make this review different from other present reviewed papers on the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper is unique because it covered the main types of cyber-attacks that most organizations are currently facing and how to address them. This study contributes in the direction of fifteen types of cyber-attacks which were identified as the most common pattern and its ensuing devastating events during the global COVID-19 crisis. Following what appeared to be substantial gaps between the initial breakout of the virus and the first COVID-19-related cyber-attack, the investigation indicates how attacks became significantly more frequent over time, to the point where three or four different cyber-attacks were reported on certain days. The modus operandi of cyberattack campaigns was revealed by analyzing and considering cyberattacks in the context of major world events. ![]() This study analyzed the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis from the angle of cyber-crime, highlighting the wide spectrum of cyberattacks that occurred around the world. ![]()
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