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Expert warns against 'real threat' of cyber crimesAMMAN, Sep 28, 2011 (Jordan Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- An overwhelming majority of individuals and establishments in the Kingdom do not take cyber crimes "seriously enough", making them more vulnerable to such crimes, according to the ICT Association of Jordan -- int@j. "The problem is that in Jordan people do not believe that they might be subject to a real threat due to cyber crimes. There is no awareness among individuals and entities in general," Abed Shamlawi, CEO of int@j, told the Jordan Times earlier this week. Recently, int@j, in cooperation with authorities in the ICT sector, hired ethical hackers to test some of the networks in Jordan which proved that cyber security is an issue in many networks, he said. "People and establishments believe that the number of e-transactions in Jordan is small, unlike in Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Therefore, they turn a blind eye and do not pay attention to cyber security," Shamlawi added. "It is true that the Jordanian market is small compared to other markets, but that does not mean the issue should be ignored. If some hackers target Jordan, we will have problems. We are part of the world and might be subject to such crimes any time," he warned. Authorities should work on securing the networks of critical infrastructure and raise awareness on the seriousness of this issue, the int@j CEO said. The financial cost of cyber crime and the value of time lost due to cyber crime experiences around the world stand annually about $388 billion, according to the Norton Cyber crime Report 2011. Launched recently by Symantec Corp., the report noted that cyber crime costs the world significantly more than the global black market in marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined. More than two-thirds of online adults (69 per cent) have been a victim of cyber crime in their lifetime, the report said, adding that every second 14 adults become a victim of cyber crime, resulting in more than one million cyber crime victims every day. The report also revealed that 10 per cent of adults have experienced cyber crime on their mobile phone. The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 16, reported there were 42 per cent more mobile vulnerabilities in 2010 than in 2009. The number of new mobile operating system vulnerabilities increased, from 115 in 2009 to 163 in 2010. In addition to threats on mobile devices, increased social networking and a lack of protection are likely to be some of the main culprits behind the growing number of cyber crime victims, the report said. "We are seeing a change in threats and attacks. It is expected that the shift in attacks will be from PCs, laptops and tablets to smart phones as in the future there will be more people using mobile phones than computers," Shamlawi said. "The rising number of social networking users and owners of smart phones is also likely to increase the number of victims of cyber attacks in Jordan, especially those who do not follow up-to-date security measures," he pointed out. The Symantec Corp. report identified men aged between 18 and 31 years who access the Internet from their mobile phone as even more vulnerable, with four out of five (80 per cent) in this age group falling prey to cyber crime in their lifetime. Globally, the most common -- and most preventable -- type of cyber crime is computer viruses and malware, with 54 per cent of respondents saying they have experienced it in their lifetime, according to the report. Viruses are followed by online scams (11 per cent) and phishing messages (10 per cent). The Symantec report found more than 286 million unique variations of malicious software ("malware") compared to the 240 million reported in 2009, a 19 per cent increase. ___ (c)2011 the Jordan Times (Amman, Jordan) Visit the Jordan Times (Amman, Jordan) at www.jordantimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |