The UAE has seen 34 million malware attacks in just six months, an increase of seven percent compared to the same time last year, according to an antivirus software company.

The country saw the most attacks of all the GCC states monitored by Kaspersky in the first half of 2021, as Oman experienced 14 million attacks, up by 67 percent on the first half of 2020, Kuwait at 11 million, up by 64 percent, and Bahrain at five million, up by 42 percent.

While Turkey saw the most cyber-attacks in the region at 44 million, the figure was a 4.4 percent decrease on last year, while attacks in Egypt increased to 42 million.

Maher Yamout, senior security researcher for Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Kaspersky, said it was a sign that hackers were refocusing their efforts to compromise consumer and corporate systems and gain access to critical data and information.

“Given the growth in digital transformation since last year and considering the increase in remote working resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, countries of the Middle East have become an attractive target for those looking to exploit a lack of user education or cybersecurity understanding,” he said.

With so many people working remotely and accessing corporate networks from their personal devices, companies must contend with a rapidly expanding attack surface, Kaspersky said.

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.

Clicking on an infected link or advert, opening an attachment in a spam email, or downloading a malicious app are ways in which malware is introduced into systems, the software firm said.

(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

Imogen.lillywhite@refinitiv.com

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