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Gisec will bring together experts offering cutting-edge
IT solutions and tactics to help counteract
the growing cyber attacks in the region.

Gisec to reveal tactics against advanced malware

DUBAI, April 23, 2015

Experts will reveal technologies and solutions to effectively fight against increasing attacks using advanced malwares at the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (Gisec) opening in Dubai, UAE on Monday (April 26).

The third edition of the event will run until April 28 at Dubai World Trade Centre.

According to a new research by Ponemon Institute, insecure browsers allow web-borne malware to infiltrate more than 75 per cent of enterprises worldwide. The institute also estimated that organisations have spent $3.2 million on average to remediate breaches caused by the malware.

Cyber attacks against global oil & gas infrastructure will cost companies $1.87 billion by 2018 as per ABI Research. The Cisco’s 2014 Annual Security Report revealed that a sample of 30 of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies generated visitor traffic in websites that host malware.

The Cisco report also indicated a spike in malware attacks on the Middle East’s oil & gas sector, with hackers targeting energy industry workers with infected emails. Meanwhile, the UAE ranked as the second most targeted country online in the Middle East last year.

Key verticals infected by Kuluoz Malware

Brian Tokuyoshi, senior solutions analyst, Palo Alto Networks, a leader in enterprise security, will be highlighting detailed insights from Palo Alto Networks recent Threat Landscape Review. This report shows how Kuluoz, a new and improved modular framework, has been infecting unsuspecting users of various key verticals since 2007. Tokuyoshi will also discuss how to protect organisations by eliminating common sources of risk and employing modern prevention-based techniques.

The key findings of the report include that 87 per cent of the Kuluoz malware was sent over SMTP while 11.8 per cent acquired the virus through HTTP. Quickly sending copies of itself over email to users, the Kuluoz malware attempts to download pay-per-install malware, and has impacted 1,933 different organisations globally including those in the Middle East.

“It is essential that information security practitioners dealing with management, governance, enablement and execution, stay current on trends and malware distribution patterns and take a prevention-centric approach to securing their organisations,” said Saeed Agha, general manager, Palo Alto Networks Middle East.

“Practitioners need to consider security that can identify and stop attacks at multiple stages in the attack kill chain,” he added.

Middle East oil & gas sector under malware attack

Early this year, a malware dubbed ‘Laziok’, which was used in an attack campaign against the petroleum, gas and helium industries across the GCC, was classified as a reconnaissance tool and an information stealer. Once the malicious emails were opened, the recipients became vulnerable to snooping and hackers acquired sensitive corporate information.

In 2014, a variant of the ‘Citadel’ malware was massively distributed across Middle Eastern petrochemical organisations. Citadel was originally created for the purpose of stealing banking credentials but has since upgraded to download information and remotely manage infected computers.

A Saudi Arabian oil company was hit with a Shamoon malware in 2013, which infected roughly 30,000 of its workstations and led to a nearly two-week disruption. Even though, the malware failed to suspend the company’s flow of oil & gas supplies to international markets, it still resulted in losses amounting to $15 million as per the company’s own estimates. The Shamoon malware also infected one of Qatar’s natural gas producers, which caused the company’s website to go down and left employees with no email access for weeks.

Gisec will showcase over 150 exhibitors. It is set to attract over 6,000 trade visitors from 50 countries.

Co-located with Gisec this year is the region’s pioneer Gulf Enterprise Mobility Exhibition and Conference (Gemec), which will address the need of enterprises to embrace mobility. At the event, senior executives will discuss ways to identify, evaluate and source technology and mobility solutions to meet their current and future mobile requirements.

Powered by Gitex Technology Week, the region’s leading technology event, Gisec and Gemec are strictly trade-only events and are open to business and trade visitors from within the industry only. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Malware | cyber attacks | Gisec | Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference |

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