At the 2018 Cyber Security Weekend taking place in Istanbul, Turkey from 11- 14 April, Kaspersky Lab revealed statistics from the Kaspersky Security Network for the first quarter of 2018.
According to the statistics an overall increase in local threats infections (malware spread in local networks, by USBs, CDs, DVDs) with Kenya taking the first place with 61.8% of its users infected, followed by 58.6% in Nigeria, 50.8% in Oman, and 55.6% in both Egypt and Lebanon. Turkey reported the lowest number of local threat infections with 46.2%.
The statistics for the same period of time also showed a noticeable overall increase in web threats with 30.2% of users affects by malware in Saudi Arabia, 28.8% in both Egypt and Oman followed by 27.4% in the UAE. On the other hand, South Africa had the lowest number of affected users in the META region (48.8% for local and 19.6% for web threats).
“We have seen an 8.5% increase in ransomware attacks in the META region in Q1 of 2018 compared to Q1 of last year, this number is not surprising, judging by the infamous success of major ransomware attacks last year. We do expect such attacks to grow and evolve in complexity and sophistication. This highlights the importance of proper security solutions backed with continuous security training to raise awareness on the dangers of such attacks,” said Mohamad Amin Hasbini, Senior Security Researcher, Global Research & Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab.
The event saw experts unpack various topics, including IoT security, blockchain technology and the rise of targeted attacks as well as threats aimed at medical infrastructure.
With organisations facing a wide range of cyberthreats that come from the outside as well as from the inside, they should have a holistic approach to cybersecurity that unites an effective IT security solution, employee education and security policies understood and followed by employees. Kaspersky Lab’s recently launched Threat Management and Defense gives businesses the opportunity to adopt a strategic approach to detecting complex attacks across the corporate IT infrastructure and successfully gain control and visibility of their security environment by mitigating risk in today’s digital world.
Edited by Fundisiwe Maseko
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