Cyber crime a threat for 50% of UAE net users

Organised cyber crime is the biggest security threat globally, and the UAE is not immune as the Middle East has more than 436,551 botnet computers and the country accounts for 42,662 of them, said a senior security expert from Trend Micro.

Internet usage in the UAE has grown 212 per cent exponentially from 2000, and as a result 49.8 per cent of the country's citizens are prone to cyber crime today. In the first four months of 2009, Trend Micro has cleaned more than one million affected computers across the Middle East, and the UAE accounted for 187,881 of these.

"Cyber criminals are calling the shots today, and security vendors are scrambling to catch up," said Rik Ferguson, Senior Security Analyst, Trend Micro. "As the underground economy has grown and prospered, businesses and consumers alike are suffering financial losses, identity theft, and damaged reputations. Security professionals are scrambling to catch up, both with the newest malware variations and with the exploding number of web threats."

The threat environment today has evolved from mass notoriety worm outbreaks in 2001 to covert dangers in 2008. Most internet users are not aware that their PCs have been compromised.

In the Emea region 56.9 per cent of threats are downloaded from the internet, 51.72 per cent are dropped silently by malware, whereas 22.41 per cent of machines are affected by removable physical drives. Trend Micro is seeing similar behaviour in the Middle East.

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