1.1 million cyber attacks in 2015

By Staff Reporter — MUSCAT: Dec. 19: According to the latest statistics issued by Symantic, the specialised organisation in cyber security, there is a growing increase of cyber attacks that target and block websites on a daily basis. In 2015, cyber attacks were more than 1.1 million whereas in 2014 they were only 493,000. Speaking at the third National Cyber Drill for IT professionals from 28 government entities, Bader Ali al Salhi, DG, Oman National CERT, said: “Considering the cyber attacks that occurred over the past few years and targeted some of the organisations, it is very clear that such attacks are drastically increasing.” The objective of the drill is to enhance communication, team work and response capabilities to ensure continued and collective efforts against cyber threats. He added, “Beside cyber attacks, government and private organisations incurred big financial losses due to the exposure to malicious ransomware that prevent authorised users from accessing personal files and data because such malicious software encrypt files and use strong encryption algorithms.