Over 14 billion attempts to hack Oman's cyber security in 2019

Muscat: The Ministry of Technology and Communications responded to more than 14 billion hacking attempts of Omani cyber security in 2019, according to the ministry's annual report.

The ministry's annual report revealed that, in 2019, the ministry handled 332 security incidents that were discovered and addressed, and more than 14 billion suspicious attempts to penetrate the Omani cyberspace network were thwarted, including over 1 billion suspicious attempts to penetrate government networks.

The Ministry, in cooperation with government institutions, has discovered 41,735 vulnerabilities, analyzed and examined 13,896 Internet Protocol addresses, in addition to providing 91 security consulting services and conducting 135 security assessments, as well as integrating 29 government websites with the website security service.

On the other hand, the National Center for Informatics Safety dealt with 483,794 attempts at electronic attacks in cyberspace and stopped 152,480 attacks on websites, 152 malwares, 89,505 mobile attacks and 2,099,498 online spam attacks in 2019.

The center also dealt with 162 criminal cases, through the National Laboratory for Digital Evidence, which included the analysis of 813 devices marked as evidence (computers - mobile phones and tablets - external hard disks - USB storage devices).