The country repeatedly urges residents to refrain from owning wild or exotic animals, and imposing hefty fines of up to Dh500,000 for violators
uae1 hour ago
Its better to be safe than to be sorry, especially when it comes to opening a suspicious e-mail, experts at the fourth Gulf Information Security and Conference (Gisec 2017) said.
The event brought together several regional and international cyber-security suppliers, providers and investors; with top industry experts, decision makers and business leaders gathering to discuss the latest online threats, trends and solutions. Exhibitors at the event also showcased the latest innovations in cyber-security solutions and services, while highlighting the best practices to tackle advancing regional cyber-crime.
Brian Pinnock, cyber resilience expert at Mimecast, noted that organisations across the Middle East, have seen greater volumes of attacks last year and have suffered larger losses than other regions in the world due to cyber incidents. One of the threat areas that has been mostly ignored by enterprises is e-mail security, he said.
"More than 90 per cent of cyber-attacks start in e-mails. While e-mail, itself, is seldom the end goal for the attackers, over 70 per cent of these attacks lead to other systems in the network. These e-mail attacks predominantly feature techniques such as spear-phishing, ransomware and impersonation of key employees," he explained. "Mimecast believes that e-mail security is critical to ensure cyber resilience against targeted attacks and IT failure. As e-mail moves to the cloud such as Microsoft Office 365, advanced security still requires a defense-in-depth strategy."
Natalya Kaspersky, president of Infowatch and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, also spoke about the growing phenomenon of ransomware attacks. "Ransomware is not a new thing and we saw such attacks from over 10 years ago. From a technology point of view, it doesn't bring any new technology. The danger is that it uses encryption to make your files unreadable to you. The recent attack was massive compared to previous virus attacks that have been very particular about where they are targeted. Also, the real danger was due to the nature of the organisations that were targeted. We saw hospitals as well as many government ministries being attacked."
What should be done to prevent such attacks happening in the future is simple, she said. "Make sure your operating systems are updated regularly and make sure you install the latest security measures. Use your anti-virus, update it regularly; and don't visit suspicious sites and download suspicious files."
Another issue that was discussed at the event revolved around cybersecurity measures that need to be increased in companies across the GCC to cater to the digital habits of today's workforce.
Gulf Business Machines (GBM), in its latest security survey, revealed that 60 per cent of Generation X are confident that their companies have the tools to predict and prevent cyber-attacks. However, the same percentage of Generation Y, or millennials, stated the opposite. While inadequate corporate investment in IT security may be a contributing factor, there also appears to be a lack of security awareness programs within GCC companies, which in turn leads to reduced confidence among Generation Y in their companies' security capabilities.
"Since the last survey conducted in 2016, we have seen a 10 per cent increase in trust among GCC executives in their companies' ability to handle cyber-attacks, which is encouraging. However, there seems to be a general disconnect in the awareness of organisational security, which indicates the need to find the right channels to communicate with the different generations which make up the current workforce," said Hani Nofal, VP of Intelligent Network Solutions, Security and Mobility at GBM.
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com
The country repeatedly urges residents to refrain from owning wild or exotic animals, and imposing hefty fines of up to Dh500,000 for violators
uae1 hour ago
Amid the ongoing crises of their own making, Kane keeps scoring to bail the club out
football1 hour ago
The winner leaves the Montgomerie in a hurry due to work obligations after shooting a tournament-winning 43 Stableford points
sports1 hour ago
The record 14-time winners snatched a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the semifinal clash in Munich with Vinicius Junior scoring a brace
football1 hour ago
Residents noted that the fire was of such magnitude that it took several hours to extinguish
uae1 hour ago
Digital bank by Emirates NBD to incubate digital asset innovations
business1 hour ago
The teenager from Surrey became the first youngest player to make the cut on the tour at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson
golf1 hour ago
The record-breaking rains disrupted flight operations and caused the cancellation of over 2,000 flights
uae2 hours ago