UAE Cyber Threats and How Serious They Are

February 18, 2019
UAE Cyber Threats

An aggregate of 276,000 vulnerabilities have been distinguished crosswise over 800,000 web confronting has in the UAE by DarkMatter Group, the provincial digital security consultancy.

Its quarterly Cyber Security Report demonstrated that 93 percent of DarkMatter’s appraisals discovered obsolete programming and 83 percent found unsupported programming.

The report likewise said that 70 percent of digital occurrence types found were caused by “endeavored access” or “misconfigurations”, including that 45 percent of the main 20 most basic vulnerabilities are delegated high or basic.

“The discoveries give distinct notices of the potential dangers we confront,” said Eddie Schwartz, EVP of Cyber Services at DarkMatter Group.

“For instance, endeavored get to and obsolete programming vulnerabilities were main drivers in earlier huge scale issues, for example, the Yahoo break and the WannaCry ransomware assaults. On the off chance that no move is made, comparable appalling conditions can progress toward becoming reality again for some associations.”

DarkMatter Group said the point of the report is to bring issues to light, give bits of knowledge and offer suggestions to remediate the dangers distinguished.

Schwartz included: “We distinguished a few occurrences positioned ‘basic’ on aeCERT’s scale, which means extraordinary damage should be possible to an association inside the UAE if any of these assaults were executed effectively. The discoveries exhibit that constant digital appraisal and a progressing duty to enhancement in security act through digital change is expected to guarantee larger amounts of digital versatility.”

While the level of security has never been more advanced, the threats have become more sophisticated than ever – which has forced companies to think outside of the box.

“The landscape of cyber threats is evolving so much so we have to focus on protecting our customers from that,” said Peter Oganesean, Hewlett Packard’s managing director for the UAE and Middle East.

The threat can come from a variety sources, including the office printer.

Printers can often have hundreds of access points for hackers, who can then bring a system to its knees by gaining control through a printer linked to the system, he said.

“There are different levels of threats, which is why we have different types of responses,” he said, referring to Hewlett Packard’s new built-in software, for printers, that identifies and neutralises viruses.

 

“The threats can come from anywhere in the world, it is a global problem, not just a regional one anymore.” He said that is why it is important that all devices come equipped with the right software to neutralise cyber-attacks.

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