COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses in 2020 have led to mass layoffs and budget cuts.  However, cybersecurity is one of the few industries that not only  protects your confidential data but survived & also flourished during the pandemic. More and more businesses are offering work from home model. Due to large number of devices suddenly connected online has led to an increase of the attack surface area . Employees staying online for a longer duration during pandemic have also led to the users’ vulnerability to cyber attacks. The Cyber Security market may be worth $363 billion in 2025 as per reports, almost 125 percent more than the amount spent last year. According to the Global Risks Report, the chances of catching and prosecuting cybercriminals are almost nil (0.05%). With such circumstances, business awareness and resilience are vital to securing sensitive data and avoiding costly data breaches. Cybercrimes are increasing and getting more sophisticated due to remote work and dependence on digital devices. Therefore, there is more demand for solutions that can help enterprises to control their entire systems remotely. Here are the top 6 cybersecurity crimes in the world during the pandemic. Twitter One of the most recognized and global social media accounts, Twitter, was breached around Bitcoin scam.  Dubious accounts requested the Bitcoin users to invest in exchange for a double in return. The tweets were only for a short time; but the hackers generated Bitcoin worth more than US $100,000. However, those duped into sending Bitcoin received nothing in return. These internet hackers used a phone spear-phishing attack to obtain Twitter employees’ credentials, who have access to internal tools. The attack also affected companies like Apple and Uber and a few political leaders as well as some influential business people in the USA. Harris Federation This year in March 2021, the London-based Harris Federation suffered from a ransomware attack. Due to this cyberattack, Harris Federation was temporarily forced to disable the devices and email systems of all the 50 secondary and primary academies. The temporary disabling of its services resulted in over 37,000 students unable to access their coursework and correspondence. SolarWinds The SolarWinds hack was a masterfully orchestrated supply chain exploit, comprising multiple systems of governments and companies worldwide. Due to this malware, the attackers could send essential data to a server of unknown origin. The investigation uncovered one of the servers that provide access to updates and patches for SolarWinds Orion, thus allowing them to inject code into the software updates and infect multiple clients at once. Companies such as Microsoft and the US Department of Defense were affected by this hack. The attack proves to be one of the most damaging of 2021. Zoom With the rapid increase of people working from home due to COVID-19, Zoom has become one of the most recognized and widely used videos and audio conferencing platforms overnight. The company has experienced revenue growth of 355% year-over-year. However, Zoom experienced cyberattack incidents, with 500,000 user accounts dumped on a dark web forum. The attackers obtained accounts by using user IDs and passwords to gain access to unauthorized  personal or confidential corporate information. Cloud Computing Vulnerabilities The global market for cloud computing is estimated to grow 17% this year. With the ongoing pandemic, the economy also witnesses a 50% increase in cloud use across the globe. It is a perfect lure for hackers as they perform 7.5 million external attacks on cloud accounts. Due to this, the number of the attempted breaches grew by 250%. The hackers could scan for cloud servers with no password, exploit unpatched systems and perform brute-force attacks to access the user accounts. Some even try to steal sensitive data, while others use cloud systems for hacking or coordinated DDoS attacks. The attackers aimed at Blackbaud, one of the best cloud service providers, and stole payment information from millions of users worldwide. Magellan Health A social engineering phishing plan was planned & executed as a cyberattack against Magellan Health, which involved exporting and launching ransomware. The attack impacted more than 365,000 patients due to data breaches. It is one of the most significant health care ransomware attacks in 2021. Malicious actors obtained the employee’s credentials to access the targeted server and compromised data about treatment, health insurance, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses and Social Security numbers. After discovering the incident, Magellan Health reported to the FBI and a leading cybersecurity firm to help conduct a thorough investigation. Conclusion We have tried to cover a few of the cybercrimes globally, which will help to gain knowledge about cybercrimes happening globally. This may help you to re-look at your organization’s readiness  to handle such data breaches due to cyberattacks. About SNS: Secure Network Solutions India ( SNS ) provides a quantifiable, risk-based approach to build cybersecurity based on globally recognized frameworks and standards. Partnering with us will give your business a solution to focus on cyber threats that will have the most significant impact. We have been protecting business since last 20 years ! Write to us at [email protected]