The first known cyberattack hit in 1988, when what became known as the Morris Worm installed itself on a computer every one out of seven times, even if the computer claimed it already had the program. With each installation, the infected computers would become further debilitated until they finally crashed. The worm damaged approximately 6,000 computers, which represented 10% of the entire internet at the time, and we have never looked back.

Over the ensuing three decades, computing and connectivity would become increasingly ubiquitous as more of how we work, play, and live becomes digital, and the combination of chips and sensors have become the fabric of our lives.

The dark side of this increasingly digital lifestyle is the voluminous growth in the number of attack vectors by cybercriminals and other bad actors. While driven primarily by financial motives, one of the more lucrative areas for cybercriminals today is data theft. Early in 2020, the Department of Homeland Security warned of an increase in cyber threats due to heightened tensions with Iran. Later in 2020, a little thing known as the coronavirus accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and solutions, leaving us and our data increasingly vulnerable as companies were forced to go virtual nearly overnight.

Being the opportunistic folks that they are, cyber attackers quickly looked to leverage the pandemic as best they could. In the first 100 days of the outbreak, the number of spam messages using coronavirus themes increased by 26%, and the number of COVID-19-themed impersonation attacks jumped 30%, according to Mimecast (MIME).

Other data from Palo Alto Networks (PANW) revealed roughly 1,800 malicious or risky domains with coronavirus-related names had been registered every day, with about one-third of them targeting the US. In early April, Microsoft (MSFT) noted attackers were capitalizing on the fear of the virus to tempt users into clicking on links and parting with sensitive information, such as login credentials.

One notable scheme saw cyber attackers use the interactive dashboard of virus infections and deaths produced by Johns Hopkins University used on malicious web sites (and possibly spam emails) to spread password-stealing malware. Recent research from Next Caller on pandemic-related security concerns found that 44% of respondents have noticed an increase in emails from unknown sources, and calls and texts from unknown numbers. This is a common marker of phishing attacks – scams in which hackers pose as companies or trusted individuals offering a legitimate service to trick recipients into disclosing sensitive information.

In addition to the “normal” cyberattacks that look to obtain an individual’s personal information, the pandemic brought with it new attack vectors. In the week of April 6-13, 2020, Google (GOOGL) shared the pandemic led to an explosion of phishing attacks with it blocking more than 100 million emails a day because they preyed on crisis-related concerns.

In April of this year, the World Health Organization reported a dramatic increase in the number of cyberattacks directed at not only its staff but upon the public. At one point, 450 active WHO email addresses were leaked online and reportedly “thousands belonging to others working on the novel coronavirus response.” Meanwhile, bad actors impersonating the WHO in emails targeted the general public with schemes to channel donations to a fictitious fund and not the authentic COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

In response to the pandemic, millions of Americans received Economic Impact Payments authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and this brought another target for cybercriminals. Emails containing malicious attachments were sent with subjects related to the stimulus. One read "RE: UN COVID-19 Stimulus" and distributed the AgentTesla malware while another read "COVID-19 Payment" and distributed the Zeus Sphinx Trojan. Both of these attack emails contained links that directed the victim to a phishing login page, where the final payment was supposedly delivered.

Another type of attack leveraged stolen, personally identifiable information to submit fraudulent unemployment claims. Meanwhile, companies were subject to business email compromise attacks that led one French pharmaceutical company to pay $7.25 million to a fake supplier for the purchase of hand sanitizer and protective masks.

The pandemic also led to a pronounced shift in people working remotely, which led to potential network vulnerabilities that spanned laptops and smartphones as well as home routers, access points, and IoT devices through which an individual connected. Video communication platforms became a target as hackers attempted to infiltrate video sessions, and other threat actors registered fake domains and distributed malicious apps impersonating Zoom Video (ZM), Microsoft’s Teams, and other web-conferencing sites.

According to Abnormal Security, the emails are very convincing and include links to landing pages that are identical to what a user would expect from a legitimate Microsoft Teams page with the imagery used in the attack campaigns copied from actual notifications and Microsoft emails. According to Gartner, 82% of organizations will allow employees to work remotely some of the time moving forward, which means this will likely remain a target vector for attackers.

In response to shelter in place orders and other restrictions, we’ve seen digital shopping and mobile ordering explode in 2020, but that too has been fodder for cyber attackers. Close to 2,000 e-commerce sites were infected during a September weekend by a Magecart campaign that infected merchant websites with a web skimmer that targeted personal and banking information entered by customers during the online checkout process. According to security company Sansec BV, this was the largest automatic attack since 962 e-commerce stores were hacked in July 2019. Readers may be familiar with this kind of attack, due to reports in June that the websites of eight U.S. cities were compromised with payment card-stealing Magecart skimmers. Those websites all used Click2Gov municipality payment software used in self-service bill-paying portals by utilities and other entities.

Recently, Microsoft warned it had detected cyberattacks targeting people and organizations involved in the upcoming presidential election, including unsuccessful attacks on people associated with both the Trump and Biden campaigns. Per the company, Strontium, operating from Russia, attacked more than 200 organizations including political campaigns, advocacy groups, parties, and political consultants;

Zirconium, operating from China, attacked high-profile individuals associated with the election, including people associated with the Joe Biden for President campaign and prominent leaders in the international affairs community; and Phosphorus, operating from Iran, has continued to attack the personal accounts of people associated with the Donald J. Trump for President campaign.

According to data published by password management and authentication solutions company Specops Software, the U.S. has been the victim of more cyberattacks from hostile actors than any other nation, with 156 incidents classified as “significant” between May 2006 and June 2020. The company also sees cybercrime on the rise and is forecasted to cost the global economy $6 trillion per year as soon as 2021.

Looking forward, the deployment of next-generation 5G networks are expected to dramatically increase the number and type of connected devices, particularly as the internet of things takes hold in industrial and manufacturing settings as well as in the home. Longer-term, those networks are expected to help enable semi-autonomous and autonomous cars.

In short, 5G and successive mobile technologies are poised to dramatically increase the number of vulnerable access points. While we continue to enjoy many aspects of what we call the digital lifestyle, we have to recognize new applications and connected devices are likely to be welcomed by cyber attackers as well.