UAE becomes Main Target of Ransomware Attacks

As per a report, the cybercrime threat rank of UAE has improved during past 2 yrs., although the country still remains a major target for the hackers. UAE's rank globally was 41st in annual Internet Security Threat Profile report of Symantec, which reaches 51st in the year 2016 as per the most recent study.

Symantec Gulf Regional Manager, Hussam Sidani, told the Gulf News that worldwide rank of Saudi Arabia is 20th and UAE is 26th for the ransomware attacks. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represents 0.7% and UAE around 0.5% of all detections globally.

Symantec has found that 1 out of 136 emails in UAE contain a malicious attachment or link. Large enterprises (having over 2,501 employees) in UAE received maximum emails containing the malware as well as phishing, whereas small enterprises (having below 250 employees) received most spam.

Gulfnews.com posted on May 2nd, 2017, stating that cybercriminals attack the large companies because of more user as well as asset base, making them a much more lucrative victim with multiple attack vectors.

The report stated that email was preferred weapon for the hackers in the year 2016. For example, 1 out of 136 emails is malicious in UAE, and moreover the country is more and more targeted for the 'ransomware' which is a cyber attack type that uses the malware for taking over and then freeze computer system, and after these demands payment from the victims to activate it again.

In Middle East and Africa, UAE's regional standing has improved, dropping to the 10th place as compared to 6th in last year. This shift shows a lesser global percentage of the source-based security threats, that includes spam, web and network attacks, malicious code, phishing hosts, as well as bots originating from the country. However, UAE has been targeted heavily for ransomware, 2nd highest in the region of Middle East and Africa, and represent around 0.5% of all the global detections.

Brazil, US and China are top sources of the cybercrime threats in the year 2016 as per Symantec, with US accounting 23.9% of the identified threats. Germany, Russia, India, UK, Japan, Vietnam and France also featured in top 10 global threat source list, from which the MENA countries are absent.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/5/2017