Interpol
Overview: The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic is profoundly affecting the global cyberthreat landscape. Compounding a global health crisis with a sharp increase in cybercriminal activities related to COVID-19 is putting significant strain on law enforcement communities worldwide. According to one of INTERPOL’s private sector partners, 907,000 spam messages, 737 incidents related to malware and 48,000 malicious URLs — all related to COVID-19 were detected between January and 24 April, 2020.
To maximise damage and financial gain, cybercriminals are shifting their targets from individuals and small businesses to major corporations, governments and critical infrastructure, which play a crucial role in responding to the outbreak. Concurrently, due to the sudden, and necessary, global shift to teleworking, organizations have had to rapidly deploy remote systems, networks and applications. As a result, criminals are taking advantage of the increased security vulnerabilities arising from remote working to steal data, generate profits and cause disruption.
In light of these events, INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate produced this Global Assessment Report on COVID-19 related Cybercrime based on its unique access to data from 194 member countries and private partners to provide a comprehensive overview of the cybercrime landscape amid the pandemic. The report is based on data collected from member countries and INTERPOL private partners as part of the INTERPOL Global Cybercrime Survey conducted from April to May 2020. In total, 48 out of 194 member countries responded to the Survey and 4 out of 13 private partners contributed their data to the report.
