(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Speaking on the sidelines of the recent Kaspersky Lab Security Analyst Summit (SAS) for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) held in Budapest, Ghareeb Saad, senior security researcher, Global Research & Analysis Team, META, Kaspersky Lab stated that while the population is relatively small in Oman, upwards of 48.3 per cent of Kaspersky Lab users in Oman have faced local infection attempts.
This puts Oman in the 30th place worldwide regarding local threat level (threats related to USBs, CDs, parts of local network) in 2013, and 32.3 per cent of the users were attacked by web-borne threats.
''While the population of Oman is relatively small, the percentage of local threats are among the highest in the region. The sultanate has a high technology and Internet penetration, and a high percentage of cyber threats is not abnormal. We expect the percentage to come down in the future as OCERT continues to introduce measures to combat cyber threats. Kaspersky Lab also works on raising awareness among PC users,'' he said.
Paolo Borghesi, head, Qatar Leader of Deloitte Information Technology Risk Services, Deloitte & Touche said, ''The GCC is a very safe place. Crime is low which means those of us living in the region don't take too many precautions, but there are no borders in cyberspace. While the governments are introducing
security measures to combat cybercrimes, in my view, improvements can be made by end users. For example, people shouldn't leave their computers unattended, share passwords with other users, and they should make sure the person who is coming to work on their computers is trustworthy.''
At the event, Sergey Novikov, deputy director, Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT), covered the topic of threat evolution in the META region up to now.
''Kaspersky Lab's products neutralised more than 132mn cyber-attacks and infections on PCs and mobile devices in the Middle East, 41.5mn in Turkey and 214mn in Africa ¨C the figures are about 50 per cent more than in 2012. The company's statistics also indicate that an average of 32.7 per cent of users in the region faced web-related threats and 47.24 per cent of users had security incidents related local networks and removable media.''
Costin Raiu, director of GReAT, presented an analysis on the world of cyber warfare and advanced persistent threats.
He provided an overview of some of the recent cyber espionage campaigns and offered predictions for the future.
While stating the trends of small cyber mercenaries groups emerging and being available for hire to perform surgical hit-and-run operations, the decrease of cost of every new cyber-campaign and supply chain attacks, Costin stressed the importance of understanding that no high profile entity or enterprise should feel totally safe nowadays.
A special presentation was dedicated to securing online and mobile financial transactions. Vladimir Zapolyansky, head of technology positioning department, Kaspersky Lab showcased vulnerabilities of modern electronic payment systems and e-commerce sites.
He gave examples of real-like cases and explained how the recently-presented Kaspersky Fraud Prevention platform helps in combating cyber attacks targeted at financial service providers and users.
A plenary discussion was dedicated to various global and regional corporate cyber security issues.
Among the topics discussed were coping with Distributed Denials of Service, securing data storages, personal devices and clouds used by employees at work, employee attitudes towards security policies and the need of government regulations on standards in business.&nbs
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