Cyber-criminals are redirecting their attacks from the travel and hospitality industry to the computer and IT sector.
According to new research by Specops Software, four in five businesses in the computer and IT industry have seen an increase in cybercrime threats since COVID-19 made working from home the new normal. The percentage of businesses attacked in this sector was higher than that found to exist in any other field.
While cyber-attacks against the travel and hospitality sector have gone up since the global health pandemic began, the increase was the smallest one experienced by any industry.
The findings were the result of a survey that asked 2043 business owners across 11 different sectors how many cybercrime threats or attempts they had experienced since making the switch to remote working.
Researchers found more than half of all businesses (54%) reported an increase in cyber-attacks while working from home. Despite this, just over half (52%) of businesses, surveyed across all sectors, said that they were mulling over whether to make the switch to remote working for their employees permanent post-COVID.
Asked what type of attack had increased the most, all sectors answered phishing attempts. The attack that almost all businesses reported being most concerned over was ransomware. While 96% of businesses were worried about ransomware, 74% said crypto-jacking was a concern and 67% feared phishing.
Despite 78% of computer and IT businesses reporting that they had experienced an increase in cyber-attacks, 85% of businesses in this sector said that they might introduce permanent remote working. By contrast, just 23% of businesses in the travel and hospitality sector were considering making working from home permanent and 31% reported a rise in the number of cyber-attacks they had experienced.
More than seven in 10 (73%) businesses in the medical and health sector reported an increase in cybercrime threats since lockdown began, with many experiencing sophisticated malware attacks in recent months.
Researchers wrote: “Although hackers have promised no more healthcare attacks, the sector is still highly vulnerable and concerned about future attacks. This is one of the reasons only 32% of businesses in this sector would consider remote working for employees.”