Mimecast’s The Year of Social Distancing: Security Challenges of the New Digital Workplace report details how threat actors targeted remote workers during the first 12 months of the Coronavirus pandemic (March 2020–February 2021). Its findings draw on data from the Mimecast threat intelligence team.

The Mimecast The Year of Social Distancing: Security Challenges of the New Digital Workplace report’s headline findings include:

1. Attack volumes surged by 48% during the first year of the pandemic, with sudden increases in volume corresponding to spikes in COVID-19 infection rates in April and October 2020.

2. Remote workers have been engaging in risky behaviour, says the report, with a 300% rise in unsafe clicks in March 2020, right when the work-from-home trend commernced.

3. Increased blur between work/personal has occured: there has been reported 60% increase in the use of company-issued computers for personal business.