Cybersecurity attacks on smart home during Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 has generated that dynamics in the context of cybersecurity change significantly, due to the displacing of activities of organizations in the city to home in telework mode. The cybersecurity architecture at home does not have the same levels of security as in organizations, even more if the house has been developed under a smart infrastructure (smart home) scheme, the cybersecurity attack surface expands. This context could be one of the reasons why the number of attacks has increased significantly to more than 35%. VPN solutions are uses to protect telecommuting communications but security attacks exploit vulnerabilities of home-equipment and people, so VPN solutions could reduce their efficiency. Attackers have focused on social engineering attacks that use the concerns generated by the covid-19 pandemic to be more effective in their attacks. This study presents an analysis of cybersecurity attacks that have appeared during this pandemic and how it forces to change defense strategies in cybersecurity.