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OSAC Item (Printer Friendly Version)
from Gulf News on Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Among Middle East states, Iran and Kuwait were most active as originators of cyber attacks, according to a survey by Symantec, the anti-virus solutions provider.

While Iran was the source of 29.3 attacks for every 100,000 Internet users, Kuwait had 23.3.

The two were placed one and two respectively in Symantec's list of Tier II countries which are seeing a high incidence of cyber attacks. Others in the category include Romania, Tanzania and Puerto Rico.

Among all countries, the U.S. led the table by accounting for 35.4 per cent of all cyber-related attacks, though down from the 40 per cent in the first half of 2001.

South Korea and China followed with 12.8 and 6.9 per cent respectively.

The Middle East can take heart from the fact that it accounted for less than one per cent of cyber-related attacks.

Fears that there will be a spate of cyber-borne terrorist attacks during the period has proved ill-founded.

According to the study, the 13 countries in the Cyber Terrorist Watch List generated less than one per cent of all attacks detected in the last six months.

The countries in the watch list are Iran, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, UAE, Cuba, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Sudan and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, contrary to popular perception, the number of cyber attacks worldwide actually declined in the second half of 2002, according to Symantec.

This is the first time a drop has taken place since the surveys were done semi-annually. These numbers, however, exclude worm and "blended threat" activities.

The lesser threats may have a lot to do with the tougher regulations that many countries have put in place against the perpetrators of virus and other forms of related attacks.

"It has less to do with the writers of these malicious codes not keeping up with the latest developments, but more of the tougher regulatory regime against such offenders," said Kevin Isaac, regional director at Symantec.

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