At GITEX Technology Week 2015, Kaspersky Lab presented an overview of the changing cyberthreat landscape in the Middle East, with a focus on corporate threats
At GITEX Technology Week 2015, Kaspersky Lab presented an overview of the changing cyberthreat landscape in the Middle East, with a focus on corporate threats. As well as the variety of threats that home users face, organizations also have to contend with corporate-oriented threats such as DDoS attacks, data leaks and targeted attacks.
According to Kaspersky Security Network, in the third quarter of 2015 on average 45% of users in the Middle East encountered malware that spread in local networks, via USBs and storage disks, while 18% faced cyberthreats emanating from the Internet. Adware (software packages that automatically render adverts in order to generate revenue for their author) and the Dunihio worm remained among the top malware types in the region in July-September.
The Dunihio worm spreads via removable media, making use of .LNK files. Infected systems are joined to a botnet to be used later in criminal activities such as distributing spam, DDOS attacks, stealing sensitive data or other malicious activities requiring high processing power. Meanwhile, the number of banking Trojan attacks doubled compared to the same period of 2014, and were increasingly customized to target Middle East online banking and trading sectors.
As well as spreading in larger quantities, malware is also becoming more sophisticated. For example, ransomware families now include cryptolockers that make it impossible to read any files without a decryption key – the cybercriminals promise to send the key to a user once a ransom is paid. Targeted attacks are among the most sophisticated cyberthreats, and have included the use of satellites for concealment, and phishing attacks specifically targeting government IT and incident response employees in the Middle East & North Africa.
With the development of information technologies, businesses are facing more cyberthreats than in previous years. Kaspersky Lab’s 2014 Global Corporate IT Security Risks survey conducted together with B2B International showed that in the GCC, 51% of organizations have faced viruses, worms, spyware and other malicious programs in the previous 12 months; 24% said they experienced phishing attacks, 24% encountered network intrusion, 22% suffered DDoS attacks and 13% faced targeted attacks. The top three internal threats experienced by organizations were the loss or theft of mobile devices (25% of respondents), accidental data leaks by staff (25%), and software vulnerabilities (23%).
“Even when cyberthreats are known, they can remain active and continue to increase in number, while new threats include some that are very sophisticated, such as targeted attacks for stealing money and data that are disguised as DDoS attacks. Organizations face a wide range of cyberthreats that come from the outside as well as from the inside, and they depend on how employees treat corporate information and the devices it is stored on. To minimize the risks, organizations – both large and small ones – need to make an assessment of their IT infrastructure and choose security measures that are optimal for their needs,” said Ghareeb Saad Muhammad, Senior Security Researcher, Global Research & Analysis Team.
To ensure they are secure from cyberthreats, companies need to implement good security policies that employees understand and follow, and deploy an effective and easy-to-manage security platform, such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business that can cover all possible risks within their IT perimeter. When it comes to mitigating targeted attacks, attention should be paid to areas such as patch management, vulnerabilities assessment, application control and whitelisting.
Kaspersky Lab experts are available for consultation at GITEX Technology Week: Stand A1-11 in Hall 1, Network Infrastructure, Dubai World Trade Centre.
