Corporate News

More than half of top-tier managers in the UAE and KSA (67%) admit that a miscommunication with the IT department or IT security team has resulted in at least one cybersecurity incident in their organizations. In terms of personal attitudes, the majority of non-IT executives cited a diminished sense of cooperation between different teams (37%) and said it situation makes them question their colleagues’ skills and abilities when communication with their IT-security employees was unclear (42%).

The latest Kaspersky report reveals 24% of companies with 50 to 999 employees are ready to use pirated alternatives of business software to decrease IT spending. Among small businesses (less than 50 employees), only 8% are ready to take this step. This measure can seriously affect corporate cyber safety, since adversaries actively distribute malicious files under the guise of most used software.

In the first half of 2022 in the Middle East, computers in the industrial control systems (ICS) environment were attacked using multiple means. Malicious objects were blocked on every third (36%) ICS computer in the region that was protected by Kaspersky solutions, according to the ICS threat landscape report by Kaspersky ICS CERT. Phishing pages were blocked on 15% of ICS computers in the region, and spyware – on 11% of computers.

According to Kaspersky’s Financial Cyberthreats report, attacks are becoming increasingly corporate rather than consumer focused. As it’s seen from Kaspersky Security Network, financial threat detections targeting businesses were growing in the Middle East in Q2 2022. Financial phishing aimed at organizations also stay high.

In mid-2021, Kaspersky researchers discovered a wave of new attacks by the Middle Eastern Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group, DeftTorero, also popularly dubbed as the Volatile Cedar. First detected in 2012, the APT group has been actively targeting the Government, Military, Education, Corporate and Telecommunication industries particularly across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Kaspersky researchers have analyzed what risks innocent-looking browser extensions pose to users and the activities of cybercriminals hiding threats under add-ons. In the first half of 2022, more than 10,000 users were affected by threats, hiding in browser extensions, at least once, which is over 36.5% of the number of users affected by the same threat throughout the whole of 2021 – with still another half of the year to go. Mimicking popular apps, such as Google Translator or extensions with useful functionality like PDF Converter or Video Downloader, threats in browser extensions can insert advertisements, collect data about users’ browsing histories and even search for login credentials, making it one of the most desirable tools for cybercriminals.

Kaspersky analysis has revealed that attacks related to data loss threats (phishing and scam/social engineering) increased significantly in Q2 2022 at 230% in comparison with the previous quarter in the UAE – the company’s security solutions have detected 3,481,419 phishing attacks in the UAE in Q2.

According to the Kaspersky Digital Payment survey, 57% of respondents from Saudi Arabia faced phishing scams when using online banking or mobile wallet services. 46% have personally encountered fake websites, and 58% — scams (via texts or calls) using social engineering.

Kaspersky today participated in the IDC Security Roadshow showcasing the role of Threat Intelligence within a Cyber Defense Strategy. Held at Crowne Plaza Riyadh RDC Hotel in Saudi Arabia, this one-day event examined trends that contribute towards elevating the security of the future enterprise.

Kaspersky delivered stable business growth in 2021 and increased its global non-audited International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) revenue to a total of $752 million*, representing a 6.5% YOY increase*. Following the second year of the pandemic, the company achieved positive results driven primarily by the B2B segment with large increases in enterprise sales. Globally, the company’s performance was driven by stable and positive results in most of the regions, in particular in META (16%**).