Companies in the Middle East remain underprepared for cyber attacks, despite a wave of hactivism making all firms fair game, Arbor Networks claims.
Regular research by the network security firm claims 51% of operators in the region don’t carry out any cyber attack drills, despite a rising number of attacks due to civil unrest and growth in organized crime.
The firm states distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are now viewed as a means of making a political statement, or promoting a particular ideology, and that typical attacks are now 2.3-Gbps in size and last at least 70 minutes.
Mahmoud Samy, Arbor Networks’ area head for the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, says all businesses in the region must incorporate IT security into their overall enterprise risk management policies and business continuity planning, to protect services including e-banking, government e-services, and mission-critical production systems.