Abstract

In 2019, a virus infection, COVID-19, traveled across the oceans, gained foothold in many countries, and started infecting the citizens of those countries. Soon, this virus was labeled a “pandemic” by the World Health Organization and was subsequently dubbed the COVID-19 virus. With the virus spreading across the globe, countries started going into lockdowns to curb the spread of the infection. The world came to a halt as people were asked not to leave their homes, offices, and institutions were forcefully closed. This scenario was entirely unexpected for most countries, institutions, and individuals. Amid these lockdowns, people started flocking towards the virtual world. This pandemic showed us that things that were supposed to be conducted physically were now being conducted online. Work-from-home (WFH) and study-from-home (SFH) terms and culture came into existence to ensure continuity of services. While the world was upside down and was trying to understand these new dynamics, cybercriminals took advantage of the chaos and carried out the rampant cyber crime on already suffering people and organizations. Cybercriminals known to monetize any recent system changes took this as a golden opportunity and were ready with their new modus operandi during this pandemic. In this survey paper, we have assessed and classified cyber crimes committed during the pandemic across the world. During this period, Malware attacks, Data breaches, Banking frauds, Job frauds, etc., were common. To prevent rampant cyber crimes in such situations, we have also discussed future generation solutions to tackle such issues so that critical systems and procedural checks must be in place.