Cybercriminals are exploiting fears around the COVID-19 pandemic to tailor their threats, and businesses are feeling the effects: 71% of security professionals surveyed have seen an increase in security threats or cyberattacks since the coronavirus outbreak began, researchers report.

Check Point and Dimensional Research polled 411 IT and security professionals to learn how the pandemic has created new challenges. The most prominent threat is phishing, as cited by 55% of respondents, followed by malicious websites promising information on the pandemic (32%). Practitioners have also seen increases in malware (28%) and ransomware attacks (19%).

At the same time, 95% of security pros are facing additional IT challenges are more employees work from home. Their greatest concerns are provisioning secure remote access (56%), addressing the need for scalable remote access tools (55%), and the increase in people who find and use untested software, tools, and services while they work from home (47%). 

Remote access challenges will continue to plague security pros, respondents say. More than 60% are worried about the need to rapidly adapt to changing circumstances, 55% are concerned about the need for better remote access security, and 49% are worried about the need to scale their security remotely.

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