UAE target for cyber criminals
dubai — The UAE has become a major target for cyber criminals, said Christopher J. Davis, president of Raytheon in the UAE, during the one-day UAE Security Forum held in the national capital on Sunday.
Davis said: “Our objective is to come together with local and international partners to contribute to the creation of a cyber security infrastructure here in the UAE. As cyber warfare and cyber crime are on the rise posing a global challenge, the protection of data demands strong cyber security.”
A 2015 report from Kaspersky Labs — the Kaspersky Security Bulletin Overall Statistics Report for 2015 — placed the UAE in the 19th spot globally, among countries facing the greatest risk of online infection. An earlier Kaspersky report found that the UAE was among the top five major targets for cybercriminals.
According to the report, 32.58 per cent of Kaspersky Lab product users in the UAE were targeted in 2015. The UAE was also positioned as a ‘high risk’ country with 52.7 per cent infections, in the category reflecting the level of local threats. Another report, the Norton Cybersecurity Insights Report, found that over two million UAE residents fell victim to cybercrime over the last year, 20 per cent of which said their personal information was stolen after using an online retailer.
Additionally, more than half of all UAE consumers reported that their account passwords had been compromised. The most common cyber thre
ats to UAE residents are malware and phishing, both of which are often conducted via malicious e-mail attachments. The report found that approximately 30 per cent of users reported coming into contact with online viruses and 41 per cent experienced “local threats” spread through USB sticks, shared files on local networks, CDs or DVDs.
Raytheon Company, with 2015 sales of $23 billion and 61,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specialising in defence, civil government and cybersecurity solutions, which is equipping UAE with solutions to handle challenges posed by cybercrimes.