Coronavirus-Related Spear Phishing Attacks See 667% Increase in March 2020

Barracuda researchers have seen a steady increase in the number of coronavirus or COVID-19-related spear-phishing attacks since January 2020, but they have observed a recent spike in this type of attack, up 667-percent since the end of February 2020.

Between March 1 and March 23, 2020 Barracuda Sentinel has detected 467,825 spear-phishing email attacks, and 9,116 of those detections were related to COVID-19, representing about 2 percent of attacks, says Fleming Shi, Chief Technology Officer at Barracuda. In comparison, a total of 1,188 coronavirus-related spear-phishing attacks were detected in February, and just 137 were detected in January, he adds. Although the overall number of these attacks is still low compared to other threats, the threat is growing quickly, he warns.