Darkreading.com reported these comments from Sandeep Chandana (director at McAfee’s MVISION Cloud group) that “…a large portion of the cloud attacks in Q4 were targeted at Microsoft Office 365 accounts. The attacks could be classified as either distributed login attacks on hundreds or thousands of Office 365 accounts via compromised consumer devices, or targeted attacks on a small number of potentially high-value accounts.”  The April 15, 2021 report entitled “Malicious PowerShell Use, Attacks on Office 365 Accounts Surged in Q4” included these comments:

PowerShell threats grew 208%; Microsoft Office malware increased by 199%, while malware targeting mobile devices rose 118% between the third and fourth quarters of 2020. And COVID-19 related malware and threats surged 114%.

Malware volumes overall increased 43% and continued to be the primary attack vector for most security incidents detected in Q4, followed by account hijackings of the sort targeted at Office 365 accounts. Exploits targeting new vulnerabilities meanwhile shot up 100% in Q4, while targeted attacks increased 43%.

Very disturbing news, but certainly no surprise!