Cyberspace has become one of the fields of modern cyber wars and its soldiers are digital pirates leading the most dangerous political, economic, and security battles alike, using electronic attacks.
One of the largest cyber-attacks in the world occurred in 2017, via Ransomware, which locks users’ files and forces them to pay sums of money using Bitcoin in exchange for decrypting them.
The attack affected over 75,000 devices in about 100 countries, and hackers succeeded after finding a loophole in the Microsoft program, the most widely used in the world.
According to statistics, the US leads the list of countries exposed to the largest number of attacks, followed by Britain.
Exposed data
So, cyberattacks usually target the “critical facilities” of a country’s infrastructure, including water and power plants, nuclear plants, train stations, public transportation, and airports.
This is in addition to data belonging to important economic, commercial, and financial companies by breaching their database, which is sometimes exposed on the Internet.
In this context, 111 exposed UAE databases were recently revealed in the period spanning Q1 of 2021 and Q2 of 2022, while 372 exposed databases were discovered in Saudi, in the same period.
IBM estimates that the global average cost of a data breach increased from $3.86 million to $4.24 million over the past year.
Facing threats
84% of organizations in the UAE are preparing for the fallout from cyber-attacks via emails, in the coming year, amid increasing threats, making email security a top priority for companies and IT and security teams, according to the latest Mimecast State of Email Security 2022 report.
While the UAE allocates a satisfactory budget for cyber security, it is likely that investments will continue to be needed to enhance the overall security situation of key business applications in the coming year.
In Saudi, the latest report data shows that Saudi organizations are making gains in building greater cyber resilience against attacks, with many companies seeing a decrease in the volume of attacks.
The report found that despite an increase in email use in eight out of ten Saudi companies, only 38 percent are concerned about increased attacks, and less than a third are concerned about an inadequate security budget.
Nearly 98 percent of companies in the region have a cyber resilience strategy against these types of attacks.
On the other hand, a report issued by Acronis Cyber Protection revealed that 71 percent and 70 percent of Saudi and Emirati companies, respectively, are looking to replace complex cybersecurity and data protection toolkits with one unified console.
82 percent of such companies claim to have ransomware protection and treatment. However, cyber-attacks hit their target every week and the volume of ransom requests increases every year.
Global countermeasures
Half of organizations, worldwide, allocate less than 10 percent of their total budget to IT security, and 23 percent of organizations globally invest more than 15 percent of their total budget in IT security despite growing cyber threats.
Cyberwarfare countermeasures are not limited to efforts by companies and organizations, but governments are increasingly becoming aware of the devastating impact of such attacks on businesses and critical infrastructure.
Governments around the world are stepping up measures to protect citizens, businesses, and critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks.
What are the most prominent types of electronic or cyber-attacks?
Ransomware attacks
Ransomware is considered one of the most dangerous cyber-attacks of this era, which puts sensitive information of individuals and organizations at stake.
In this type of attack, the victim is faced with the deletion of all crucial information from his system if he fails to pay the ransom within the timeline provided by the hackers, as they often blackmail the user by publishing their important files if the ransom is not paid.
Malware Attacks
Malware attacks include all types of malicious software designed to harm or damage a computer, server, client, or network without the end user’s knowledge.
Online attackers create, use, and sell malware for many different reasons, but it is often used to steal personal, financial or business information.
Despite their different motives, cyber attackers always focus their tactics, techniques, and procedures on gaining access to privileged credentials and accounts to carry out their mission.
