The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) reported a decline in the number of cyberattacks against websites in the UAE during the first four months of the current year.
Cyber-attacks during this period reached 155, compared to 297 attacks during the same period of 2017, a decline of 48 percent.
The decrease from January to April reflects the significant success of the “National IT Emergency Response Team” of the TRA in deterring hacking attempts.
According to the TRA’s statistics, cyberattacks during the first four months of the current year mainly targeted government and private sector websites.
Forty-five cyberattacks involving fraud and phishing were recorded during that period, and a further 26 cyberattacks aimed to leak information. The other attacks involved defamation and other purposes.
The authority’s statistics also showed that 85 attacks had a medium impact, 35 had a low impact, and 35 attacks had a major impact.
The TRA’s list of major cyberattack risks includes the vulnerability of Internet Explorer, the smart installer of Cisco, hidden programmes included in Microsoft updates, the Ziklon programme, and the ransom programme for the known e-cloud.
The TRA is working to raise awareness on how to counter malicious programmes, by holding seminars and awareness programmes for the entire community.
The TRA requires all authorities to follow its information security policies and back up their data on devices that are not connected to the internet. It also recently launched a campaign, titled, “They Do Not Deceive You,” as part of its duty to raise community awareness.
According to the 2017 Norton CyberSecurity Insights Report, the cost of cybercrime in the UAE totalled nearly Dh4 billion in 2017, and over half of UAE respondents experienced some types of cybercrime, including identify theft and credit card fraud.
Source: WAM
