Since the advent of Covid-19, the increase in working from home, online education and entertainment via online platforms has ramped up the number of Internet users worldwide. According to Forbes, Internet hits surged by 50-70%.1 This phase shift caught the eye of adversaries, causing increased numbers of targeted and broad-based attacks such as phishing, malware distribution and online fear-mongering in order to conduct scams and fraudulent operations. For example, more than 240 million Covid-19 related daily spam messages were mapped and Google blocked 18 million daily malware and phishing-related emails during April 2020.2 That shows how severely adversaries are exploiting the Covid-19 situation for online fraud. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd
The Covid-19 threat landscape