UAE tops hit list of cyber criminals

44% users in country report ‘local threats’ in first quarter spread through USB sticks, CDs and DVDs.

by

Bernd Debusmann Jr.

• Follow us on
• 
• 
• 

Published: Thu 21 May 2015, 12:42 AM

Last updated: Thu 25 Jun 2015, 10:39 PM

Dubai — The UAE is among the top targets in the region for cyber criminals using malware and web-based viruses, according to research released by cyber security giant Kaspersky Lab.

An analysis of the first quarter of 2015 conducted by Kaspersky found that 41 per cent of users in the Middle East experienced threats from local networks and removable media, while 21 per cent experienced web-based threats.

Kaspersky senior security researcher Mohammed Amin Hasbini noted that the UAE is among the most common target for all types of cyber threats.

“If we look at the number of attempts of infection with locally spread malware, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Qatar and Oman are the top five countries,” he said. “For the number of web detections, the five leading countries are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Oman.”

In the UAE, 29.3 per cent of users reported being affected by online threats and 44 per cent experienced trouble with “local threats” spread through local networks, USB sticks, CDs or DVDs.

“These figures reflect many realities, including the number of threats in the wild, users’ activity on the Internet, their attitude towards cyber security, their understanding about the need to have a security solution installed,” Hasbini said. “An indifferent attitude towards cyber security doesn’t only put money, data and reputation at risk, but also prompts the spread of cyber threats.”

In particular, Hasbini noted that local cyber threats remain the most dangerous in the UAE. The most widely used method to insert malware and viruses is through USBs, shared network folders and local networks.

Hasbini urged UAE businesses and government entities to make sure that security precautions in the future keep in line with technological shifts towards online services.

“It will be interesting to see the user behavior facing the cyber threats in the region, considering that user awareness and care while online needs to be enhanced,” he said. “It will also be interesting to see how that reflects on the fast adoption of online solutions for almost all banking and government services.

“Sooner than anywhere else, the people (of the UAE) will be relying on smart services running all around them to manage their lives and help them to get better performance and efficiency, of course on the condition that they adopt a safe behaviour online, as it could also cause them a lot more damages and problems.”

Cyber mercenaries

Another Kaspersky senior researcher, Ghareeb Saad, noted that the rise of “cyber mercenaries” in the region represents a new danger. As an example, Saad pointed to the “Desert Falcons”, an online group that has struck more than 3,000 victims in over 50 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.

“The Desert Falcons cyber espionage group, considered by Kaspersky Lab to be the first known Arabic group of cyber mercenaries to develop and run full-scale cyber espionage operations, simply confirms that,” he said. “Another thing we see is cyber criminals exploiting political tensions, big events and headline news to gain users’ attention and instal a Trojan, get access to credentials and more.”

bernd@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE