Carding and data leakage rise sharply in the Middle East in the wake of Covid-19

Carding and data leakage rise sharply in the Middle East in the wake of Covid-19

Help AG's security analysts saw a 500 per cent jump in risk alerts for carding from January to June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, the cyber security company reveals in a new report.

Carding refers to the trafficking of credit cards, bank accounts, and other personal information online.

The massive five-time increase in carding alerts was observed through scans of public sources including information sharing platforms and deep web sources with data compiled by botnets and underground markets. Stolen details included recovery date, BIN code, card number, card expiry, source, card brand, card type, issuing bank, and country of the issuer. The top impacted sectors include aviation, logistics, and retail, the report adds.

Security analysts at the cybersecurity company also reported a 183 per cent jump in threat alerts related to data exposure during the initial months of Covid-19 pandemic. Data leakage refers to the intentional (malicious intent) or unintentional (human error) exposure of confidential documents, corporate emails, and documents with sensitive metadata on official channels of an organization and the dark web for subsequent unauthorized use and exploitation for malicious purposes.

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The most impacted sectors include healthcare,