Ransomware attacks in the UAE declined more than 70 per cent at the start of 2023, compared with the same period a year ago, the government’s cyber security chief has said.
The figure is also the same rate of decline as at the start of 2021, with the government boosting co-operation with international entities, most notably Interpol, to protect the country’s cyber space, Mohamed Al Kuwaiti said.
“Everything is moving towards technology and that is great for humanity, services and communities,” he told The National on the sidelines of the Palo Alto Networks Ignite conference in Dubai on Thursday.
“But it opens vulnerabilities as is always the case in most of those technologies.”
“We have great KPIs [key performance indicators] and SOPs [standard operating procedures], so we can react swiftly and quickly,” Mr Al Kuwaiti said.
Cyber attacks continue to become more sophisticated and advanced, especially in today’s digital age in which hackers focus on unsuspecting users who are immersed in technology more than ever.
In particular, ransomware — a type of malicious software that takes over a system and demands a payment for it to be restored — continues to grow, compared with 10 years ago.
Ransomware operators have grown from small hacker groups to entire corporations, software company Group-IB said in a recent report.
The manufacturing sector will remain the biggest target, followed by property, professional services, transport and finance, while the US will remain the country where most companies are attacked, it said.
Against industrial organisations, attacks surged by 87 per cent annually in 2022, with manufacturing entities still the most frequent victims, cyber security firm Dr ..
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