In the course of the past decade, the US has witnessed an exponential increase in cyberattacks. The unpredictability and unavoidable demeanor of such attacks pose an ongoing threat to organizations big and small.
Amidst the chaotically quick transition online during the pandemic, according to Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance, many organizations became an open target.
Networks were scattered, people were transitioning to working from home, and IT teams had to catch up in order to facilitate the transition for organizations. Between February 2020 and May 2020 more than half a million people were affected by breaches in which the personal data of video conferencing services users was stolen and sold on the dark web. Cyber criminals found opportunity in emotional vulnerability, and continue to do so today.
“At that moment, we were stressed out and we have been for the past couple of years with COVID, with a contentious election, with a war now in Ukraine,” Plaggemier told Medscape Medical News. “From a social engineering perspective, cybercriminals are going to use any topic that is an emotional hot button for us, and try to take advantage of our emotional vulnerability.”
A report on cybercrime breaches by Statistica indicates that the total number of data breaches in the United States in 2020 came in at a total of 1001, lower…
