Mubasher: Cybercriminals, especially those using botnets, are still targeting the GCC states, topped by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Microsoft reported.
The GCC region represented about 11.4% of the Middle East’s cybercrime botnets.
The Saudi capital Riyadh accounted for 43.1% of bots, followed by Dubai with 24.7%, according to Microsoft’s latest security intelligence report.
In 2017, cybercriminals managed to steal AED 4 billion from some victims, Arabian Business reported.
During the first six months of 2018, cyber-attacks decreased on the back of the growing awareness and investment in cybersecurity.
“The actual number of attacks we are seeing is dropping linearly, year on year we are seeing less and less,” Microsoft’s principal security engineering manager David Weston said.
The most known cyberattacks came from simple threats that are implemented through social engineering like sending a phishing e-mail with a malicious attachment – or through poorly secured cloud apps.
“You can see that in the price of a weaponised exploit [used by hackers], which has skyrocketed, to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. That’s representative of the scarce supply of people who can turn a vulnerability into something that would work [for a hack],” Weston indicated.
The largest number of cyberattacks could be easily banned via practical solutions, comprising user education, he added.
