Security experts warn that remote workers in the UK capital are under cyberattacks after recording 91 million threats in 28 days in January.
The Insurer Coalition set up a series of honeypots in a project with the Cyber Resilience Center of London, a police non-profit organization, to calculate cyber threat levels for organizations operating in the area.
“We use honeypots to learn about attackers and their tactics. It’s like using a decoy car to attract car thieves,” says Simon Bell, a UK security researcher at The Coalition. explains Mr.
“Once an attack occurs, we know what vulnerabilities cybercriminals are looking for and how they are trying to exploit them. assigned.”
The study recorded 2,000 attacks per minute targeting honeypots, 85% of which attempted to hijack remote desktop connections used by employees working out of the office.
Attacks were traced back to 101,000 different attackers, with Russia being the largest source of attacks, followed by Bulgaria, Monaco, and Panama. However, the Coalition was quick to point out that many attackers use VPNs through other countries to hide their real location.
Bell argued that research shows that working from home has significantly expanded the attack surface for companies.
Simon Newman, CEO of London’s Cyber Resilience Center, hailed the survey as a great opportunity to gain insight into the threat landscape.
“This will allow us to align our updated guidance with our small business membership base, which comprises 99.8% of businesses across the capital,” he added.
“It also helps illustrate the scale of the threat facing the business community, which supports access to funding and partnerships that allow us to continue doing important work.”
The Cyber Resilience Center in London is one of nine similar regional centers in the UK dedicated to reducing cyber risks for SMEs and third sector organizations. It works in partnership with the Mayor’s Police Crime Service, City of London Police, Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police.
