90% of Business E-Mails in the Middle East are Spam, Says Trend Micro

Trend Micro, an online security research company, has stated that several firms in the Middle East are receiving almost 1.5 Million e-mails everyday throughout their networks, of which 90% are junk e-mails, making them vulnerable to cyber attacks launched by hackers.

Furthermore, security analysts said that firms encountering e-mail related attacks on their messaging system and network supports compromise their businesses to several damaging risks like information leak, compliance problems plus legal risks.

Trend Micro further revealed that with an annual growth of 300%, there has been a phenomenal rise in spam levels in the Middle East. Although firms are unable to prevent it, they can undertake measures to cut down the devastating effect in case of a attack.

Trend Micro's Marketing Manager for the Middle East and Africa, Ian Cochrane, alleged that the biggest new cyber threat in the UAE is e-commerce, and since the Internet usage has risen significantly in the Middle East, people could not afford to be satisfied any longer, as reported by AMEInfo on September 8, 2008.

He also said that firms in the Middle East have to realize the damaging and far-reaching impact of targeted threats on a company and take requisite measures to minimize the risk.

Furthermore, Trend Micro's Senior Technical Engineer for the Middle East and Africa Samir Kirouani also asserted that firms are facing a flood of e-mail-based attacks on their messaging systems and network supports. junk e-mails, botnets, phishing, spyware, targeted e-mail threats, and combined-threat strikes are compromising firm's networks, as reported by AMEInfo on September 8, 2008.

He also appended that having a messaging center away from the internal network, the client can effectively secure its network system against general e-commerce attacks like junk e-mail and phishing, offer adaptable content filtering, and cut down infrastructure management costs.

Another report called The Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), volume 12, issued by Symantec Corp, indicates that hackers are becoming more and more proficient and mercenary in the evolution, distribution and application of malware services. The ISTR discovered that the UAE was positioned 40th in the list of nations masterminding hacking, six places up since March 2007.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 9/15/2008