Brazil is target of 70% of online threats that use Covid-19 issue as bait

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil leads by far the ranking of countries with the highest number of records of hacker attacks that use the theme “Covid-19” as bait to spread malicious files such as viruses, malware, and Trojans.

According to the global Fast Facts report, released by the cybersecurity company Trend Micro, in September, the country accounted for 69.3% of the records of this type, far ahead of South Africa, which had 14.5% of the occurrences.

In August, the margin was even more significant, 81.1% for Brazil and only 8.7% for South Africa. In July, the country was also first, with 63.9% of the attacks, against 13.5% for India.

The survey analyzes the global scenario of digital threats. Also, it shows that by September this year, the number of attacks worldwide is already equivalent to the number registered in 2020.

The numbers are part of a global report. The Fast Facts survey, which analyzes the global scenario of digital threats, also shows that in the first 7 months of 2021, the number of attacks worldwide was already equivalent to the number registered for all 2020.

According to the study, about 700,000 threats with themes related to the pandemic were detected in September alone, the vast majority distributed by e-mail. Experts say that after a drop between May and June, the number of threats rises again, month by month.

Cyber-attacks have seen a significant increase since 2018 (48.4 billion occurrences), with a jump from 2019 (54.2 billion) to 2020 (66.5 billion). The trend is that 2021 will close with a new surge compared to last year because only from January to September this year, 66.3 billion attacks were recorded.

In September alone, Trend Micro claims to have blocked nearly 8.15 billion cyber threats.

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