Kuwait Times, Sunday, May 07, 2023 | Shawwal 17, 1444
Kaspersky experts share what’s new on the cyberthreat agenda in META
Kuwait :
During Kaspersky’s 8th annual Cyber Security
Weekend – META 2023, held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the company’s experts discussed
the biggest cyberthreats specifically targeting governments, enterprises,
businesses and industrial organizations, while forecasting the trends that will
influence the cybersecurity landscape in the future. The impact of Artificial
Intelligence, compromised corporate data on the Darknet, risks carried by
deepfakes as well as critical industry-specific threats – all these topics were
discussed during the conference. Special attention was put on Kaspersky’s Cyber
Immunity approach as a way to create solutions that are virtually impossible to
compromise and that minimize the number of potential vulnerabilities.
“Considering how quickly the threat landscape is expanding its boundaries and
the number of new devices appearing in users’ daily lives, it’s not surprising
that we were detecting over 400,000 malicious files per day and this number is
growing year by year,” comments Dr Amin Hasbini, Head of Global Research &
Analysis Team (GReAT) for META, at Kaspersky.
“It is crucial for individuals, businesses, and governments to take proactive
steps to protect their systems and data from these evolving threats. This
includes implementing strong cybersecurity measures, staying vigilant against
emerging threats, and keeping up to date with the latest security trends and
best practices.”
A gradual rise in phishing attacks
Diving deeper into social engineering cyberattacks, Kaspersky shared insights on
phishing attacks which are most common in the META region. Comparing Q1 2022 to
Q1 of 2023, Egypt (49 percent), UAE (33 percent), Qatar (88 percent), Oman (28
percent), Kuwait (27 percent) and Bahrain (20 percent) saw an increase in
phishing attacks on users. On the other hand, phishing attacks in Saudi Arabia
saw a slight decrease of 1 percent in Q1 of 2023 as compared to the same time
period in 2022.
In the African region, phishing attacks grew in South Africa (7 percent),
Nigeria (53 percent) and Kenya (87 percent) in Q1 of 2023 as compared to Q1 of
2022. Turkey (53 percent) witnessed a 53 percent increase in Q1 of 2023 as
opposed to Q1 2022.
Ransomware
According to Kaspersky’s data, the number of organizations that faced ransomware
mainly dropped in Q1 2023 in META region in comparison with the same period in
2022. The decline was observed in the Middle East region, where the number of
B2B ransomware detections dropped by 61 percent. Over the same period ransomware
attacks also dropped in Turkey, with a 59 percent decrease, as well as in Africa
(a 65 percent drop).
“While we see a decrease in ransomware in the META region, that doesn’t mean
that it becomes less dangerous. We can clearly see a distinctive trend in
ransomware getting more sophisticated and targeted, exposing victims to more
threats. In the recent years, ransomware groups have come a long way from being
scattered gangs to businesses with distinctive traits of full-fledged industry.
They continue to evolve by adopting techniques, such as developing
cross-platform ransomware, embedding self-propagation capabilities and even
using zero-day vulnerabilities that were previously affordable only for APT
actors. It explains why it remains one of the most crucial threats for business
despite the detection numbers decreasing”, comments Dmitry Galov, Senior
Security Researcher at Kaspersky. “This is a global trend, while in those
regions that put more efforts into proper protection measures on governmental
and organizational levels the decrease is more dramatic. For countries with a
lower level of cyber readiness ransomware remains a critical threat and the
decrease is less prominent.”
Fast paced growth of trojan banking
New malware families and cyberattack campaigns have contributed to a rampant
rise of Trojan banking attacks in Q1 of 2023 as compared to Q1 of 2022. The
highest increase was in Turkey (238 percent). Overall, the Middle East too saw
an increase in trojan banking attacks in the first quarter of 2023 – Kuwait (218
percent), Egypt (186 percent), Saudi Arabia (168 percent), Oman (115 percent),
Qatar (99 percent), UAE (67 percent) and Bahrain (33 percent). Nigeria (268
percent) and Kenya (129 percent) also posted an increase.
Anticipated trends that will impact the
cybersecurity landscape in META
Major drivers of growth in cybercrime are expected to be Crimeware and Advanced
Persistent Threats (APTs).
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Middle East to witness a rise in Crimeware:
Crimeware is malicious software that is covertly installed on computers.
Crimeware programs can be Trojans, keyloggers or spyware, and represent a
new type of threat to security, posing new challenges and vulnerabilities.
For example, some trojans are used to log every key you type (keyloggers),
some capture screenshots when you are using banking websites, some download
other malicious code, and others let a remote hacker access your system.
What they each have in common is the ability to ‘steal’ your confidential
information – such as passwords and PINs – and send it directly to the
criminal. Armed with this information, the cybercriminal is then able to
steal your money. Notably, North and South Africa too will evolve into a
hotbed for Crimeware.
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APT attacks in Central and East Africa: As countries in Central and East
Africa accelerate on their digitization agenda, government and diplomatic
institutions as well as key industrial organizations can become rich targets
for stealthy APT attacks this year, according to Kaspersky experts. A strong
cyber defense and intelligence sharing is important in this environment to
identify and expose APT patterns, disarming cybercriminals and disrupting
the kill chain.
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Geographical expansion of APTs: Kaspersky experts have also witnessed
advanced actors performing attacks with a focus on Europe, the US, the
Middle East, and various parts of Asia. While most actors previously
targeted victims in specific countries, more and more APTs are now targeting
victims globally. For instance, MuddyWater, an actor that previously showed
a preference for targeting Middle Eastern and North African entities, has
expanded its malicious activity to organizations in Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Malaysia, and Canada.
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997.
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