(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The first quarter of 2014 Saudi Arabia had the highest total number of local and online malware detections closely followed by the UAE.Kaspersky Lab a global leader in providing antivirus and internet security software for home and business said its products were able to neutralise more than 34.9 million cyber attacks and malware infections on computers and mobile devices in the Middle East in the first quarter.
This represented an increase of almost 10 per cent year-on-year (2013’s figure was 31.6 million in first quarter).
A study conducted by the Moscow-based company shows that although Internet-borne incidents increased in 2013 the majority of threats still originate from local networks and removable media.
In the first quarter of 2014 Saudi Arabia had the highest total number of local and online malware detections closely followed by the UAE. Bahrain and Lebanon were the safest countries with the region’s lowest threat levels according to data from Kaspersky Security Network. More than seven million of these came from the Internet while the remaining were blocked when they came from local sources such as USB drives DVDs etc. These security incidents represent three per cent of the global total Sergey Novikov deputy director Global Research & Analysis Team of Kaspersky said.
Ghareeb Saad senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab said while mobile and financial malware distributed denial of service web threats and advanced persistent threats are becoming more popular among cybercriminals removable media and local networks are still the primal sources of IT dangers for users in the Middle East. Companies and home users should be aware of those risks and to care of their data using comprehensive solutions to keep safe he said.
Saudi Arabia suffered the greatest number of reported incidents with 9.8 million attacks were blocked. Almost 80 per cent of those were local threats. 43.8 per cent of Saudi’s computer users were affected by malware on USBs DVDs and local networks while 28.1 million faced online threats. UAE followed with 8.7 million incidents detected 1.97 million of which were online threats (26.7 per cent users were affected by them while 42.6 per cent faced local threats).
Regional Kaspersky Security Network statistics show that Iraq had the region’s highest percentage of users who faced web threats – 35 per cent. Egypt had the highest level of local infection with 51.3 per cent though the online risks were moderate in the country – 24.3 per cent of users were influenced.
Bahrain and Lebanon have the fewest malware detections in the region as well as the lowest percentage of people affected - only 17.7 per cent and 15.3 per cent of users faced Internet-borne threats respectively and 34.5 per cent and 34.9 per cent of users experienced local attacks. They are safest countries in the Middle East in terms of IT threats.
The most popular malware used by cybercriminals in the first quarter in the region — the Dinihou Worm — made about one million infections. It spreads through removable media devices making use of LNK files. The most frequently exploited vulnerabilities were breaches in Media Player Classic.
Novikov said the cybercrime had come out of geographical boundaries to become a major global problem with almost every country in the world suffering from it. “Being a global international company Kaspersky Lab has a wide-angle vision of the modern IT security landscape and we are glad to share it with anyone who wants to know what cyber threats are there andhow to protect personal and business assets.” In 2013 Kaspersky Lab’s products were able to neutralise more than 132 million cyber-attacks and infections on PCs and mobile devices.
— issacjohnkhaleejtimes.com
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