An Analysis and Investigation of InfoStealers Attacks during COVID’19: A Case Study

Abstract

A COVID-19 pandemic is a rare event that distorted the lives of many civilians worldwide stemming from what is commonly referred to as the new-normal regarding communal standards and the way we live and work. Apart from the devastating influence on humanity and business, the pandemic also spawned a set of unprecedented cyber-attacks. These cyber-attacks during such critical time have traumatized the society. The rise in cyber-attacks is triggered due to rising apprehensions due to this pandemic like never before. Resultantly, a significant increase in the quantity and variety of cyber-attacks is observed since emergence of Covid-19. Cybercriminals promptly leveraged this pandemic premise to rebrand general attack vectors. These attacks are typically info stealers and vary from attacks of minimal intricacy such as 404 Keylogger to the latest and more frequent attacks such as Lokibot. This manuscript analyses the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of cyber-attack and establishes that a huge surge has been recorded in the cyberattacks during this pandemic across the globe. In this manuscript, authors analyze the cyberattacks from the perspective of critical macro events to divulge the modus-operandi of cybercrimes. This analysis helps to employ the USA as a case study to determine how cyber-criminals gained access to vital information related to significant events. As a result, this also helps to create and project cyber-crime campaigns meticulously.