Cyber threats in UAE fell 20% in 2023, says Kaspersky

Experts from cyber security company, Kaspersky, recently discussed the evolution of the cyber threat landscape in the UAE and the region during its 9th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2024, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The focal point of the discussions was the security of emerging technology trends such as AI, that are influencing the scale of modern threats.

In parallel, threats targeting industrial control systems within critical infrastructure, in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia were also discussed. Kaspersky’s Cyber Immunity approach took centre stage as a way to create solutions that are virtually impossible to compromise and that minimize the number of potential vulnerabilities.

Threat landscape in UAE

When looking at the threat landscape in the United Arab Emirates, Kaspersky’s telemetry showed that the number of overall cyber threats in the country decreased by 20 per cent in 2023 as compared to 2022. While attacks using social engineering tactics to scam people into revealing sensitive information, popularly known as phishing attacks increased by 70 per cent. Dissecting the threat landscape in the United Arab Emirates further, between Q4 and Q3 of 2023, Kaspersky experts saw attacks using exploits that take advantage of a particular vulnerability in a system rise by 53 per cent. Ransomware attacks designed to encrypt a victim’s data, files, or system, making them accessible in exchange for a payment, increased by 86 per cent in the UAE. Spyware attacks which involve malicious software that infiltrates a user’s computer to gather and share data with third parties rose by 44 per cent. And backdoor attacks which allow users to bypass security and gain high-level access increase by 55 per cent.

Regional Analysis of Online Threats

According to Kaspersky’s analysis, online threats caused by vulnerabilities on web pages, in emails, or web services, have fluctuated significantly in the region. Turkey saw the highest number of users affected by online threats (41.8 per cent), followed by Kenya (39.2 per cent), Qatar (38.8 per cent), and South Africa (35 per cent). Fewer users were affected in Oman (23.4 per cent) and Egypt (27.4 per cent) followed by Saudi Arabia (29.9 per cent) and Kuwait (30.8 per cent).

“In 2023, Kaspersky reported 6 per cent growth in B2B sales in the Middle East region and successfully blocked a total of 30 million threats in the UAE. Both these figures clearly show that organizations are determined to enhance their cybersecurity readiness in the view of growing sophisticated cyber threats. Since education is key to raising cybersecurity awareness, we have partnered with several government entities such as The UAE Cyber Security Council to amplify our efforts across all sectors,” added Rashed Al Momani, General Manager at Kaspersky in the Middle East.