Computer Virus & Trojans Hit 57% of Gulf Businesses in May-Oct 2009

As per a study by IT security firm 'Trend Micro,' almost 57% of Gulf businesses were targeted by two or more virus assaults in the last six months (May-October 2009).

Managing Director of Trend Micro (Middle East), Chris Moore, said that 92% of all attacks had a web module, and therefore organizations should make sure that they are defending their businesses from loss of money, data and reliability. The reliance of businesses on the Internet increases their susceptibility to attack since 63.6% of entire office work is web based, as per the news ZAWYA on November 19, 2009.

Moore also stated - since a large number of firms were effectively targeted in the last six months, insufficient awareness, employee behaviors and scarce security has put businesses in the Middle East at risk.

The survey disclosed that 29% respondents secure private information in their system and 14% had no faith in the IT security software of the firm. While a stunning 98% admitted to surfing the web for non-work related activities, 42% accepted to doing this frequently, followed by 31% spending one to four hours in office time.

Each Internet account is protected by password and hackers are trying to break those passwords so that they could steal data for financial gain. The survey discovered that 22% of respondents had 6-10 web accounts and 12.5% had 11-15 accounts. The startling fact is that 54.8% use just two-five passwords to change all their web accounts, increasing the risk that if one of the accounts was hacked, there would be a chance of hacking all accounts.

Spam mails have also become a problem in the Middle East region. With spam touching almost 200 Billion per day worldwide, the Internet has developed to become a major threat-infection means for contemporary attacks. The Middle East constitutes almost 3.56% of international spam, of which the UAE has the largest spam share, followed by Saudi Arabia.

Besides, Saudi Arabia leads all Gulf countries in cyber attacks. From all the recorded cyber attacks during the first nine months of 2009 (January to September 2009) in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia witnessed 64% and the UAE (20%).

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 11/27/2009