The number of incidents recorded by the National Cybersecurity Center (CNCS) increased 101% in the first half, in year-on-year terms, to 689, according to the Cybersecurity Observatory bulletin released today.

“During the first half of 2020, there was a significant increase in the number of incidents between the months of February and April, and then there was a steady decrease between the months of April and June,” says the July Cybersecurity Observatory.

“The increase coincides with the time of confinement due to the covid-19 pandemic”, and, “compared to the same period of 2019, the first half of 2020 registers a 101% increase in the number of incidents”, reads in the document.

In March, 138 incidents had been registered (a year-on-year increase of 176%), in April the number reached 150, which dropped to 138 incidents in May. Last month, 106 incidents were recorded.

According to the document, “34% is the upward trend in the number of incidents recorded by CERT.PT [CNCS service that coordinates incident response] in the second quarter, compared to the first quarter of this year, from 295 to 394” .

In comparison with the second quarter of 2019, “with a record of 176 incidents, there is a growth of 124%”, he says.

In the second quarter, 160 incidents of ‘phishing’ were recorded [computer attack aimed at ‘fishing’ sensitive data from a user], being the most frequent type of incident, followed by the system infected with ‘malware’ (68 incidents) and non-access. authorized (41 incidents).

More than a third (37%) of the ‘phishing’ incidents recorded by CERT.PT in the second quarter of this year “affected the banking sector”.