Cybercriminals have been popping up everywhere since COVID-19, and yet there is very little awareness of cyber-attacks.

In the business world, larger organizations are more at risk than medium or small businesses as hackers consider the big ones to be the big fish.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions reported the same but from an individual perspective: people aged 75 or above are most likely to be bullied by cybercriminals but young adults have also been victims of hackers.

Hackers are not only taking advantage of the Covid-19 situation but also targeting users who are new to the digital world, especially those who are receptive to these attacks.

Transaction Growth

The global transaction volume has increased by approximately 29% since 2019 which is what makes cyberbullies drool. Financial and e-commerce transactions are mostly made through the internet, and that is why these two sectors are the most vulnerable to hackers.

According to sources, 180 million people were affected by cyber attacks. It all started with the bot-initiated attacks, and over 100 million people were victims of it. The e-commerce sector was most affected by the new wave of devil-bots and there was a significant increase in the number of stolen identities on the black market since the pandemic. It’s no wonder that hackers are behind these stolen identities – they tested the efficiency of the list and then started targeting the e-commerce sectors. Once the stolen identities were verified, hackers used them to target bigger industries like financial sectors by taking over the sensitive accounts.

Vulnerable Demographics

Many young adults and older people have been shifting to the digital world since 2020. They’re either shopping online or working from home. Young adults call themselves tech gurus, but little do they know that hackers are much more capable when it comes to fooling people.

Older people are less familiar with technology, and hence they’re more prone to clicking something that seems suspicious. Cybercriminals consider them the weakest human link and make them the targets of their phishing attacks.

Unexpected Places

There is a misconception in the minds of many people that cyberbullies originated from China and Russia. These countries were considered the hub of hackers but a report showed that the largest volume of hackers came from the United States. Not to mention that Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom are also big hubs for these cyberbullies.

Human-led attacks have been prevalent in smaller nations like Bahrain and Zimbabwe, and Saudi Arabia has been the victim of bot-led attacks.

Conclusion 

All businesses are shifting online and organizations need to provide a safe and secure network for their customers. They also need to upgrade their technology and hire employees who are good at managing and securing sensitive customer data, and are educated in the protocols of security.

Protecting the data of adults, especially people aged above 75 is necessary as they have little idea of how the latest technology works. And educating customers about cyber attacks is key to ensuring the safety of both businesses and people.