• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

 | 

Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

 | 

Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

 | 

Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

 | 

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 50

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 529 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Iran confirmed it shut down internet to protect the country against cyberattacks

 | 

Godfather Android trojan uses virtualization to hijack banking and crypto apps

 | 

Cloudflare blocked record-breaking 7.3 Tbps DDoS attack against a hosting provider

 | 

Linux flaws chain allows Root access across major distributions

 | 

A ransomware attack pushed the German napkin firm Fasana into insolvency

 | 

Researchers discovered the largest data breach ever, exposing 16 billion login credentials

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Malware
  • Security
  • Security threat landscape in the Middle East … the mined cyber area

Security threat landscape in the Middle East … the mined cyber area

Pierluigi Paganini April 03, 2014

Analysis of the cyber threat landscape in the Middle East region provided by Tim Rains, director of Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft, at RSA 2014.

Middle East is historically a critical area for the diplomacy, but there is the same critical under the cyber security profile. The governments, the enterprises and the organizations present in the area are privileged targets for numerous categories of actors, like cyber criminals and state-sponsored hackers.

Events like Stuxnet case and Saudi Aramco cyber attacks are considered milestones in the history of high-profile malware attack. Data proposed by Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 15  links a variety of different socio-economic factors in the evolution of cyber threats in different countries, including the Middle East.

Microsoft has identified 11 factors as key indicators able to influence the overall cyber security of a country or of an entire region, government stability and level of corruption perceived may have a serious impact on the diffusion of cyber threats.

Middle East indicators

Rule of law, stability of the regime and literacy rate in conjunction with other factors, including the economic development and digital access can influence the health of a country under cyber security perspective.

“Malware infection rates are much higher in regions where there are raised levels of strife and turmoil. Political protests and unrest lead to an increased malware infection rate, for example” “Regional cyber vulnerabilities are not linked to any single factor”,  “but to a variety of different socio-economic factors”. Tim Rains, director of Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft, explained.

Middle East cyber threats categories

The analysis of malware diffusion in different states in the area, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, shows infection rates of 10 to 12.9 computers per thousand, nearly twice the worldwide average for infection rates. The situation is more alarming if we consider data of the remaining countries in the Middle East, which is almost five times the world average.

Egypt, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq have an infection rate ranging between 25 and just over 30 computers per thousand, very disturbing is data related to Turkey as reported in the following image.

 Middle East Turkey

 

Tim Rains has made an intriguing presentation at the recent RSA conference 2014 in San Francisco about the security threat landscape in the Middle East titled “A deep dive into the security threat landscape of the Middle East/Southwest Asia” which contains a detailed analysis of the cyber threat landscape in the Middle East region.

Rains also enumerated the best practices adopeted by countries with low infection rates:

  1. Strong public – private partnerships aimed at driving down infection rates.
  2. CERTs, ISPs and others actively monitoring for threats in the region.
  3. An IT culture where system administrators respond rapidly to reports of system infections or abuse.
  4. Enforcement policies and active remediation of threats via quarantining infected systems on networks.
  5. Regional education campaigns and media attention.
  6. Low software piracy rates and widespread usage of Windows Update/Microsoft Update.

Let me close with a paradigm cited in the slides:

“Nations with below average digital access tend to see increases in CCM as they improve tech access, meanwhile Nations with above av3rage digital access tend to see decreases in CCM as they improve tech access.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Middle East, malware)


facebook linkedin twitter

cyber espionage cyber threats Microsoft Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Middle East phishing RSA Conference Saudi Aramco stuxnet Turkey Volume 15

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 25, 2025
Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 25, 2025
Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Hackers deploy fake SonicWall VPN App to steal corporate credentials

    Hacking / June 25, 2025

    Mainline Health Systems data breach impacted over 100,000 individuals

    Data Breach / June 25, 2025

    Disrupting the operations of cryptocurrency mining botnets

    Malware / June 25, 2025

    Prometei botnet activity has surged since March 2025

    Cyber Crime / June 25, 2025

    The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

    Mobile / June 24, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT