The number of cyberattacks in South Korea spiked in the first quarter this year, due to the number of people working remotely amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to SK Infosec on Monday.

The nation‘s biggest data security solution provider detected 1.74 million cyberattacks in the first quarter, up 21 percent on-year -- the monthly average reached 0.58 million, up from 0.48 million last year.

The company said that there has been a significant increase in hacking attempts aimed at remote-work settings that lack security measures. The hacking attacks tried to snatch employees’ accounts to get access to corporate intranets and data centers.

There has also been a rise in coronavirus-themed malware and phishing scams.

SK Infosec expects that the cyberattacks aimed at remote-working employees will continue to grow when the coronavirus spread is prolonged. It advised remote working people to use multifactor authentications, while minimizing uses of third party telecommuting software that could have potential security flaws.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)