In the 1990s and early 2000s, ransomware attacks were mostly carried out by hobbyist hackers who aimed to gain notoriety through cyber pranks and vandalism ( Srinivasan, 2017). After the target computer was restarted 90 times, PC Cyborg hid directories and encrypted the names of all files on the C drive, rendering the system unusable. The first ransomware sample dates back to 1989 with the PC Cyborg Trojan ( Tailor and Patel, 2017). Higher levels of unemployment can be another factor that motivates people towards cybercrime, such as launching ransomware attacks and disrupting critical IT services, in order to support themselves ( Lallie et al., 2020).Ĭyber extortion methods have existed since the 1980s. Attackers made good use of fake COVID-19 related information as a hook to launch more successful phishing campaigns. For example, many phishing campaigns prompted users to click on specific links to get sensitive information related to a COVID-19 vaccine, shortage of surgical masks, etc.

As the workplace paradigm shifted to home-based scenarios-resulting in weaker security controls-attackers lured people through COVID-19 themed ransomware phishing emails. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the rate of cyberattacks.

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