UAE down in cyber attacks as web penetration grows

Dubai: How safe is your computer? It's a question that has given many a person sleepless nights despite the PC and the internet becoming integral to our daily life. Rapid growth in adopting technologies and broadband in particular has it own pros and cons.

Some of the main disadvantages are an increase in data theft, data leakage, and the creation of targeted, malicious code for the purpose of stealing confidential information that can be used for financial gains, Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report Volume XIV revealed.

"Among more than 200 countries monitored globally, the UAE has moved out two spots from 38th in the world to 40th and for the second year in a row. Saudi Arabia is ranked first in the Gulf for online attacks," said Johnny Karam, Regional Director, Symantec Mena.

He said as malicious code continues to grow at a record pace, "we're also seeing that attackers have shifted away from mass distribution of a few threats to micro-distribution of millions of distinct threats".

"Cyber criminals are profiting from creating and distributing customised threats that steal confidential information, particularly bank account credentials and credit card data. While the above ground economy suffers, the underground economy has remained consistently steady."

Most Gulf countries are not as highly ranked on a global level as they were in 2008's report, with the exception of Qatar which was ranked 78 last year, moving up to 69 in 2009.

The US remained the top country for overall malicious activity in 2008, and again ranked first for a number of categories within this, including for malicious code, phishing website hosts, and originating attacks.

Of the top 10 new malicious code families detected in 2008, three were Trojans, three were Trojans with a back door component, two were worms, one was a worm with a back door component, and one was a worm with back door and virus components.

The UK was the top ranked country for back doors and Trojans; Egypt was the top-ranked country for viruses; and Saudi Arabia was the top-ranked country for worms.

When quantifying spam and phishing attacks, the report singles out the UAE as the top-ranked country in the region, closely followed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Six of the top 10 countries responsible for originating web-based attacks in 2008 were from the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) accounting for 45 per cent of the worldwide total - more than any other region.

"As malicious code continues to grow at a record pace we're also seeing that attackers have shifted away from mass distribution of a few threats to micro-distribution of millions of distinct threats," said Karam.

"In some countries, broadband subscriptions have risen by nearly 900 per cent in the last four years. Growth in broadband availability in a country often results in a corresponding growth in malicious activity. Also in some countries, people still primarily use Internet cafés or other publicly accessible shared computers to access the Internet. Public computers used by large numbers of people for a wide variety of purposes have an increased window of exposure to attack," Bulent Teksoz, Regional Technology Manager, Symantec Mena.

"We know that no matter what state the traditional economy is, underground economy is on the rise. We expect to see threats towards confidential data increasing, generally running silent in the background, stealing user information," Teksoz said, based on Symantec's report.