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In May and June, businesses may have caught a break, but cyberattacks are still becoming increasingly common. It is a well-documented fact that cyber-attacks against businesses and consumers have dramatically increased due to the pandemic. 

F5 labs recently revealed more about the methods and targets of cybercriminals. As gathered by the firm’s SIRT (Security Incident Response Team), the analysis indicates a significant uptick in DDoS and password login attacks since the pandemic started.

The incidents rose sharply back in March, peaking in April, where the number of attacks was thrice what is typically experienced.

Up and down the trend goes

By May and June, the cases began falling back to normal levels, but then July came around, and another upward trend was observed, this time going to twice the level recorded last year.

The attacks mostly fell into two categories; DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) and password login attacks. The password login attacks were mainly conducted using brute force and credential stuffing. In the first half of the year, 45% of SIRT incidents reported were DDoS, and 43% were password login attacks.

The remaining 12% were malware, web attacks, and an assortment of other campaigns. Raymond Pompon, the director of F5 Labs, says that more turbulence is coming, as the pandemic’s economic impact spreads.

It will get worse

The holiday shopping season, for example, will be more online than other years and could welcome more attacks. Our rising usage of the internet and technology dependence to get things done has shown that attacks will go up.

Cybercriminals are aware that a majority of people are not conversant with the safeguards that could offer protection. Workers are also not protected by company firewalls, making them prime targets for phishing attacks, among other effective attacks.

Also read: Cybercrime becomes more sophisticated: ‘we can’t continue like this.’