iscover
Share this article on:
Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
Cyber threats skyrocketed by 275 per cent during Black Friday week, according to new research.
A study conducted by Surfshark Antivirus has revealed that in the week approaching Black Friday, there was a 274.85 per cent spike in Australia, with every 50th scan using Surfshark’s Antivirus scanning technology, at least one threat was detected.
Surfshark’s latest report was comprised of data it has collected and analysed since 17 October 2022.
While not one of the top five at-risk countries when it comes to cyber crime, Australia saw one of the largest spikes, alongside Romania (4349 per cent), Belgium (440 per cent), Lithuania (95 per cent) and Germany (75 per cent).
Australia is also the fourth-most at-risk country in the Asia-Pacific by threat rate. The average threats found per 100 scans in the Asia-Pacific is 15 (7 per cent lower than the global average), however, Australia’s threat rate was 47.
Europe remains the most affected region when it comes to cyber threats, with a threat rate 28 per cent higher than the global average.
Riskware was by far the most common threat detected at 47.3 per cent, followed by heuristic at 12.4 per cent and adware at 9.2 per cent.
Riskware is a legitimate program that has the potential to turn into a malicious program or malware, due to security and software vulnerabilities. Hackers use riskware to launch attacks and obtain information such as credit card details, personal information and more.
Surfshark has released a list of things that people can do to protect themselves from online threats.
Be the first to hear the latest developments in the cyber industry.
