This year, individuals and businesses have faced the largest number of cyberattacks in history. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as businesses and schools around the globe adopted remote work policies, cybercriminals continued to take advantage of American’s daily activities moving increasingly online.
Due to the growing remote workforce, Comcast has released their first-ever Xfinity Cyber Health Report to outline key observations on the state of cybersecurity in Americans’ connected homes. The report combines data from a new consumer survey with actual threat data collected by their xFi Advanced Security platform. The survey was conducted among 1,000 US adults via email. As part of the findings, Comcast announced that since January 2020, their security platform has blocked six billion cybersecurity threats – about 104 threats per home per month.
Noopur Davis, Chief Product and Information Security Officer at Comcast says “the cyber threats facing even the most lightly connected homes have grown so numerous and so complex, that ordinary people can barely keep track, much less protect themselves.” On average, one home has 12 connected devices with some with as many as 33 connected devices.
Key findings from the report include:
- Consumers Underestimate the Number of Attacks: 95% of survey respondents drastically underestimated the number of attacks they face each month. The majority of respondents indicated that they believe to face 12 attacks per month when in reality the average household faces 104 security threats every 30 days.
- Mix of Devices Targeted: The top five devices most targeted and most vulnerable to an attack are 1) Computers & Laptops 2) Smart Phones 3) Networked Cameras 4) Networked Storage Devices 5) Streaming Video Devices
- Consumers Do Not Have Cybersafe Behavior: 96% of respondents were unable to answer 6 basic true/false cybersecurity questions. 64% admitted to sharing passwords which makes them more vulnerable to an attack.
- Non-Screened Devices More At Risk: Cybercriminals target non-screened connected devices because they have little to no security protection and can be more easily hacked.
As employees continue to work from home, connected corporate devices are also vulnerable to attack. It is important that your employees are trained on how to spot a potential cyberthreat and their homes are secured.
