Fortinet Report: Global Cyber Attacks Increased in First Half of 2020

A new Fortinet report has found that instances of cyber attacks increased during the first half of the year as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted normal operations and transitioned workplace activities to remote settings.

Fortinet said Wednesday the Global Threat Landscape Report, released by the FortiGuard Labs unit, includes data collected from the company’s sensors deployed across the world that work to gather analyses of threat events such as malware, exploits and botnets.

According to the report, adversaries exploited public fears and uncertainty over the global pandemic to conduct malicious social engineering, phishing activities, email scams, ransomware attacks and state-sponsored campaigns.

The abundance of telework activities also enabled cyber criminals to breach internet of things devices as well as commercial routers, web browsers and personal networks.

“There has never been a clearer picture than now, of why organizations need to adjust their defense strategies going forward to fully take into account the network perimeter extending into the home,” said Derek Manky, chief of security insights and global threat alliances at FortiGuard Labs.

“It is critical for organizations to take measures to protect their remote workers and help them secure their devices and home networks for the long term.”

Fortinet noted that it considered regional variations in cyber threat events as well as local response, practices and policies in the report.