Although last summer was a period of rest for many, some at the seaside and some in the mountains, Avast he certainly didn’t work less than other times of the year.
The famous antivirus, in fact, has reached a new record of interventions, exceeding one billion cyber attacks blocked in a month. The latest report proposed by the company in recent days takes stock of the situation on cybercrime, addressing issues such as the increase in adwarethe growing phenomenon known as malvertising and the application ofArtificial intelligence in online fraud.
Second Jakub KroustekDirector of Malware Research at Avast, what happened last summer is not surprising “The days of seasonality in cyber threats are apparently long gone, with the growing use of AI and advanced tools at cybercriminals’ fingertips. Whether people use social networks, meet online, stream programs, or even simply respond to emails, it is important that they are aware of potential threats when carrying out their daily activities” said the expert.
Avast and the most frequent cyberattacks: financial fraud and dating scams on the rise
If AI, malvertising and adware represent a large portion of cybercrime, Avast wanted to keep the attention high on other threats that should not be underestimated.
The financial fraud, for example, are an increasingly concrete danger. According to Avast research, this type of danger is growing substantially throughout the world. Among the countries most affected by this trend is Japan, with an overall increase of 19% in cases. Other nations follow, such as Greece (with an increase of 17%), the United States (+14%) and Austria (+13%).
According to Avast experts, many of these scams start on social networkperhaps through videos that exploit techniques related to deepfakeleveraging the credibility of some famous people.
Not least are the cases of scam dating. In this regard, a new and fearsome tool, called Love-GPTwhich helps cybercriminals create fictitious characters, useful for more easily claiming victims.
In this sense, we are talking about an overall increase in cases equal to 34%with the United States, Canada and some European countries (such as Germany and Belgium) among the hardest hit.