MUSCAT: Close to 38 per cent of the total cyber attacks in Oman targeted corporate employees due to staff working from home, according to a research by global internet security firm Kaspersky.
The issue of cyber security has become even more critical in the current businesses landscape, where many companies are working remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the attacks have become a concern.
However, the research also showed that there has been a drop in malware attacks in the first half of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020.
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Kaspersky research showed that 37.5 per cent of the total 2,482 financial malware attacks targeted employees of corporate companies.
“Cyber criminals continued their efforts to exploit the conditions created by the coronavirus pandemic in their favour as most companies continue to adapt to remote work scenarios,” said Oleg Kupreev, a security researcher at Kaspersky.
“When we are looking at these statistics, we can see the keenness of cybercriminals targeting corporate employees as a way to infiltrate corporate systems,” he noted.
According to Kaspersky, companies have become vulnerable to financial malware attacks as more employees are working outside the relative security of corporate networks. Kupreev said training employees in digital security, along with the need to secure these devices, is a key component of protecting against the growing dangers of financial malware that uses phishing tactics to target individual users.
“Financial phishing in particular is one of the most used tools for cybercriminals to make money, as it doesn’t require a lot of investment or technical expertise and can be hired quickly. Successful scammers in most cases gain access to either the victim’s money or data that can be sold or otherwise monetized. This indicates how important it is for companies to address one of the weakest links in the digital security chain; It is the user, and it also points to the importance of being vigilant and careful from a digital security perspective, especially during difficult operating conditions,” he added.
