Norton Labs Releases New Consumer Cyber Safety Pulse Report
June 10 2021 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Ransomware, Stalkerware, Illicit Coinmining,
Gaming Threats and Phishing Scams on the Rise
Today, Norton Labs, NortonLifeLock’s global research team,
launched its first quarterly Consumer Cyber Safety Pulse Report,
tapping into the company’s breadth of threat telemetry to reveal
the top cybersecurity trends from January to March 2021. Phishing
campaigns remained the number one threat to consumer Cyber Safety,
with top scams relating to the pandemic, including
vaccine-oriented, financial relief, and tech support scams1.
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“Our renowned Norton Labs group is at the forefront of
identifying and analyzing the latest trends in cybercrime, and it’s
clear through their analysis that cybercriminals continue to find
new ways to capitalize off of the pandemic,” says Darren Shou, head
of technology, NortonLifeLock. “Over the next three months, we can
expect scammers to tap into the gradual shift to a post-COVID state
as people start to return to work, travel and engage in social
activities.”
Norton blocks more than 900 million threats on average every 100
days. Between January 2021 and March 2021, 49.6 million phishing
attempts, 46.3 million file-based malware, 686,000 mobile-malware
files and 536,137 ransomware detections were reported. During this
time, the majority of scams were designed to trick consumers into
sharing their personal and financial information in an attempt to
steal their money.
Additional insights from the Consumer Cyber Safety Pulse Report
include:
- Popularity of cryptocurrency is driving spikes in illicit
coinmining and ransomware: Coinmining has come roaring back
with the price of Bitcoin quadrupling over the past year.
Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the price trend and
increasingly spreading coinminer malware that exploits consumers’
computer resources (i.e., processor, graphics card, memory and
network bandwidth) for illicit mining activities – victims could
see a spike in their electric bills as a result. Similarly, now
that consumers have easy access to cryptocurrencies through
services like Coinbase, Robinhood and PayPal, there has been a
parallel rise in ransomware campaigns requiring payment in
cryptocurrency, with a 35% increase from late 2020 to early
2021.
- Cybercriminals continue targeting gamers: In addition to
phishing campaigns, “Trojanized” crack campaigns are an increasing
threat targeting the gaming community. These cracks are being
distributed from sites that show up very early in Google searches
and trick gamers into manually disabling antivirus protection while
infecting their system with a variety of highly malicious
software.
- Stalkerware on the rise: Instances of stalkerware,
malware designed to secretly monitor victims’ activities on their
devices, increased by 20% from November 2020 to January 2021.
Norton Labs also detected a surge in emails purporting to sell
stalkerware.
For more information and Cyber Safety guidance, visit the Norton
Internet Security Center.
About NortonLifeLock Inc.
NortonLifeLock Inc. (NASDAQ: NLOK) is a global leader in
consumer Cyber Safety, protecting and empowering people to live
their digital lives safely. We are the consumer’s trusted ally in
an increasingly complex and connected world. Learn more about how
we’re transforming Cyber Safety at www.NortonLifeLock.com.
1 No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210610005156/en/
Jenna Torluemke NortonLifeLock Inc. (650) 527-6015
Jenna.Torluemke@nortonlifelock.com
Heaven Lampshire Edelman for NortonLifeLock Inc. (541) 852-7885
Heaven.Lampshire@edelman.com
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