UAE, Saudi firms concerned about cyber attacks: Mimecast report

A new study by cybersecurity company Mimecast shows that as concerns about brand exploitation grow, 74 percent of organizations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are worried about a brand exploitation, web domain or site spoofing attacks.

Cybercriminals are quite aware of the ease in which they can register lookalike domains and conduct sophisticated attacks that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, impersonating trusted brands.

Using popular brands or our favorite retailers and services to trick people into handing over money or confidential information has become normal for malicious attackers. Moreover, it’s getting more difficult for these brands to continue to avoid responsibility for these deceiving acts.

The Mimecast State of Email Security Report shows that in the UAE, 50 percent of organizations admit they are very worried about an attack that deliberately imitates their email domain, compared to a global average of 40 percent.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), an email validation system designed to expose someone who is using the domain of a brand without authorization, should be in the cybersecurity toolkit of every company. However, in Saudi Arabia, only 40% of respondents use DMARC, while all were aware about it. Even though 98 percent of UAE respondents were informed about it, only 34 percent used it.

All the countries surveyed in this year’s survey expect web and email spoofing attacks to increase in the coming year, but with 54 and 52 percent respectively, UAE and Saudi Arabia organizations were among the ones on the highest alert, predicting an increase.

In the past year, six web or email spoofing attacks were reported by UAE organizations on an average, while Saudi Arabia organizations were made aware of seven.

Mimecast

Mimecast is an international IT security company that specializes in cloud-based email management, including security, archiving and continuity services to protect business mail. With over 1,800 employees, the company has 12 global offices.