Work From Home Igniting Cyberattacks, Claims Global Financial Watchdog

New York Post reports the uptick in cyberattacks is caused by an unprecedented amount of people working from home due to the pandemic, according to a statement from the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on Tuesday. The FSB also mentioned that financial firms require strengthening their defenses.

Cyberattacks, including phishing, malware, and ransomware, increased from around 5,000 per week in February 2020 to more than 200,000 per week in late April 2021, the FSB reportedly said.

“Financial institutions have generally been resilient, but they may need to consider adjustments to cyber risk management processes, cyber incident reporting, response, and recovery activities, as well as management of critical third-party service providers, for example, cloud services,” the FSB stated.

The FSB will release a final report in October, planning out its next steps. The board already made proposals for “strengthening the resilience of money market funds,” which severely impacted last year’s market decline.