The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the European Union's cybersecurity landscape over the past months due to government-imposed restrictive measures, such as quarantines, which have forced millions of people to work from home, shop online and engage in other internet activities that have sparked a surge in cybercrimes, the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the European Union's cybersecurity landscape over the past months due to government-imposed restrictive measures, such as quarantines, which have forced millions of people to work from home, shop online and engage in other internet activities that have sparked a surge in cybercrimes, the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) said on Tuesday.
According to the EU cybersecurity agency's eighth ENISA Threat Landscape (ETL) report, which encompasses data between January 2019 and April 2020, the top three cyber threats faced by the bloc are malware, web-based attacks and phishing, followed by identity theft, data leaks and cyberespionage, among others.
"The ETL report warns that there is a long road ahead to reach a more secure digital environment. This is mainly due to the weakening of existing cybersecurity measures through changes in working and infrastructure patterns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This global phenomenon has led to a surge in cyber criminals' personalised cyber attacks, using more advanced methods and techniques," ENISA said in a press release.
The agency added that the number of fake online shopping websites had increased during the pandemic.
"From copycats of popular brands websites to fraudulent services that never deliver the merchandise, the coronavirus revealed weaknesses in the trust model used in online shopping," the statement read.
According to ENISA, a large number of cybercrimes in the EU still go unnoticed.
In terms of COVID-19, Europe currently stands as the third-worst-affected region to the Americas and South-East Asia, with just above 8 million cases, as shown on the World Health Organization's dashboard.
