Governments, enterprises, businesses and industrial organizations worldwide are under constant threat of cybersecurity attacks that are only becoming more sophisticated and are having a significant impact, according to a warning by a leading cybersecurity company this week.

The data-backed insights mainly related to the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa region (META) were revealed at the eighth edition of the Kaspersky Cyber Security Weekend – META 2023, held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week.

"Considering how quickly the threat landscape is expanding its boundaries and the number of new devices appearing in users' daily lives, it is not surprising that we were detecting over 400,000 malicious files per day and this number is growing year by year," said Amin Hasbini, head of Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) for META, at Kaspersky.

Hasbini stressed it was crucial for individuals, businesses and governments to take proactive steps to protect their systems and data from these evolving threats.

"This includes implementing strong cybersecurity measures, staying vigilant against emerging threats and keeping up to date with the latest security trends and best practices," he noted.

Phishing attacks on the rise

Providing a more in-depth analysis of social engineering cyberattacks, Kaspersky shared details of the prevalence of phishing attacks in the META region.

The findings revealed a significant rise in phishing attacks on users during the first quarter of 2023 compared to the period of 2022, particularly in Egypt (49%), UAE (33%), Qatar (88%), Oman (28%), Kuwait (27%) and Bahrain (20%).

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia experienced a minor decline of 1% in phishing attacks during the same period in 2023 as compared to 2022.

In the African region, phishing attacks grew in South Africa (7%), Nigeria (53%) and Kenya (87%) in the same period. As for Türkiye, attacks soared by a 53% increase as opposed to the first quarter of 2022.

Ransomware

Among others, the data showed the number of organizations that faced ransomware noticeably dropped in the first quarter of 2023 in the META region versus a year ago.

The decline was particularly evident in the Middle East region, where the number of ransomware detections targeting businesses dropped by 61%. Türkiye also saw a significant decrease in ransomware attacks, with a 59% drop, while Africa experienced a 65% reduction over the same period.

"While we see a decrease in ransomware in the META region, that does not mean that it becomes less dangerous," said Dmitry Galov, a senior security researcher at Kaspersky.

"We can clearly see a distinctive trend in ransomware getting more sophisticated and targeted, exposing victims to more threats. It explains why it remains one of the most crucial threats for business despite the detection numbers decreasing," Galov said.

"This is a global trend, while in those regions that put more efforts into proper protection measures on governmental and organizational levels, the decrease is more dramatic. For countries with a lower level of cyber readiness ransomware remains a critical threat and the decrease is less prominent," he noted.

Trojan banking attacks

Based on Kaspersky's data, new malware families and cyberattack campaigns have contributed to a rampant rise of Trojan banking attacks in the first quarter of 2023.

The highest increase was in Türkiye (238%). Overall, the Middle East too saw a rise in Trojan banking attacks in the first quarter of 2023 – Kuwait (218%), Egypt (186%), Saudi Arabia (168%), Oman (115%), Qatar (99%), UAE (67%) and Bahrain (33%). Nigeria (268%) and Kenya (129%) also posted an increase.