The UAE was the third most attacked country in the region by malware with 34 million attacks recorded in the first half of 2021.
As per a Kaspersky research, malware is widespread across the Middle East, accounting for 161 million of attacks and growing by 17 per cent when compared to the last year figure of 138 million.
And even though the rate of growth in the UAE was low compared to some of the neighbouring states, an increase of 7 per cent over H1 2020, it was still on the up.
Turkey accounted for around a quarter of malware attacks in the region (44 million), followed by Egypt (42 million) and the UAE (34 million). The report did not include the stats from Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, Turkey was also the only country that saw a slight decrease of 4.4 per cent in all malware attacks in H1 2021 when compared to H1 2020.
The growth in each country in the region varied. Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt have seen a large spike in malware attacks, increasing by 67 per cent, 64 per cent, 45 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively. Qatar and the UAE show lower increases of 16 per cent and 7 per cent.
With so many people working remotely and accessing corporate networks from their personal devices, companies must contend with a rapidly expanding attack surface. These devices might not have an adequate level of protection meaning that once they are compromised and an employee logs into the network, hackers can potentially get access to sensitive data and cripple the organisation.
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Kaspersky has recommended the following best practices for malware protection:
- Install anti-virus software on every device that connects to the Internet. Kaspersky recommends Kaspersky Security Cloud
- Only download applications from trusted sites. Even then, always check the app permissions and, if certain things do not make sense, do not install the programme
- Never click on unverified links, especially when coming from suspected spam emails, messages, or suspicious-looking websites
- Keep operating systems and applications always updated with the latest patches
- Be wary of using free WiFi at coffee shops, restaurants, and other places as hackers can snoop for unprotected devices
