Attempted RDP Attacks Surge Marks 2020
One of the biggest changes in the digital landscape that the 2020 global Covid pandemic brought about was the shift towards working from home and abandoning traditional office spaces. This massive shift led to a very obvious change in the world of digital security and outlined a growing trend - a surge in RDP attacks.
It's only natural that RDP attacks will be on the rise, with millions working from home and in an environment that is generally far less secure than that of a company office. With far less security protocols in place and a general laxer attitude towards work.
Security researchers published data showing that RDP attack attempts have surged 768% over the course of the last year. A total of a staggering 29 billion attempts at RDP attacks were performed in 2020, focusing and targeting people working from their homes.
RDP attacks are used for gaining access to a company's network infrastructure and can have devastating effects. Once a RDP point of entry is compromised, the bad actors can deploy further malware on the network, including ransomware.
The massive onslaught of RDP attacks eased a bit in the last couple of months of 2020. According to researchers, the reason for this was the shift of focus - bad actors were gearing up to make the most out of massive digital sale events such as Black Friday 2020 in late November and the holiday shopping spree.
Both of those events were more online-focused than ever before due to the lockdowns and the pandemic.
The bottom line here would be that with no end of the pandemic in sight, companies and businesses should focus on improving their employees' awareness of digital security. There are things that can minimize the risks associated with working from home.
Those measures include using strong passwords that represent a significant hurtle to brute-force attacks, enabling multi-factor authentication on every application and platform that offer this functionality.
While those types of security precautions are applicable to our everyday life and online accounts at large, they are particularly important when it comes to company security.
