Over 55 million cyberattacks blocked in GCC during H1 2020

DUBAI: A combined 56,873,271 email, URL, malware, and banking malware attacks were recorded in the GCC region during the first half of 2020, data by Trend Micro has found.

During Gitex 2020, Trend Micro Incorporated, the leader in cloud security, released the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) results for its annual mid-year roundup report.
In the GCC, Trend Micro detected 41,236,550 email threats, 13,181,016 URL victims, and 61,314 URL hosted attacks. Malware continues to surge, with Trend Micro recording 2,392,097 malware detections, and another 2,294 banking malware detections in the region.

Worldwide, COVID-19 related threats have been the single largest type of threat faced by organisations in the first half of the year. In just six months, Trend Micro blocked 8.8 million COVID-19 related threats, nearly 92 per cent of which were spam delivered via emails. In the GCC, Trend Micro blocked 163,774 COVID-19 threats: 127,415 URL attacks, 36,312 email spam attacks, and 47 malware attacks.

Supporting Middle East organisations in their secure digital transformation, Trend Micro is exhibiting at Gitex under the theme of “The Art of Cybersecurity.” The theme combines Trend Micro’s proven foresight, its XGen security strategy of cross-generational threat defence solutions, and passionate people to make cybersecurity a work of art.

“The GCC’s high rates of cyberattacks across email, URL, and malware show that cybercriminals are ramping up their exploits of the weak points in organisations’ endpoints, network, and cloud — especially with COVID-19-related threats,” said Dr Moataz Bin Ali, Vice President, Middle East & North Africa, Trend Micro.

At GITEX, Trend Micro is showcasing cybersecurity solutions across cloud (Cloud One Hybrid Cloud Security), user protection for endpoints (Apex One), email and web, detection and response (XDR), Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control security (TXOne Networks), and network protection from known, unknown, and undisclosed threats (Network Defence).

“As the region’s only in-person technology event in 2020, Gitex is a key event for Trend Micro to spread the importance of cybersecurity in the shift to digital transformation,” added Dr Moataz Bin Ali. “We are returning to Gitex to show how Middle East organisations can reinvent their cybersecurity posture and processes.”

Encouragingly, since the lockdown, more than four-fifths (82 per cent) of the UAE’s remote workers say they are more conscious of their organisation’s cybersecurity policies, according to Trend Micro’s recent study “Head in the Clouds.”

However, many employees are still breaking the rules anyway due to limited understanding of resource constraints. During Gitex, Trend Micro will also educate organisations about the importance of not having a one-size-fits-all cybersecurity strategy, but rather tailoring their cybersecurity strategies to the most common employee attitudes and behaviours on risk awareness, risk management, and risk avoidance, and personal accountability.

During Gitex, Trend Micro aims to once again meet customers and channel partners and to exchange best practices in cybersecurity.