ALMA-ATA, May 8. The largest number of cyberattacks in 2023 is recorded in regions where geopolitical conflicts occur, primarily the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and Northern Africa, a number of CIS states, including Russia, can be distinguished among specific countries, said Amin Hasbini, head of the Middle East research center at Kaspersky Lab.
«We see a lot of cyber attacks in regions where geopolitical conflicts occur. Many targeted attacks are recorded in Asia, Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East. Among the countries are Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. Russia is also in the top ranking in terms of the number of cyber attacks «, he said.
Hasbini noted that depending on the country, the specifics of cyberattacks also differ. For example, devices running on the outdated Windows 7 operating system continue to be actively used in Russia and Kazakhstan, which makes them vulnerable to hackers. And in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, the company has seen many phishing attacks where scammers try to convince a user to click on a link and follow it in order to steal their data or financial information.
According to him, the authorities of the countries are trying to be proactive, using, among other things, artificial intelligence, but the opposition should be multidirectional. “We need to work with both users and companies, implement technical tools, issue regulations, and increase people’s cyber literacy. Examples include working with users during a pandemic, people were trained not to click on suspicious links and other basics of safe behavior in Internet,» he said.
At the same time, he stressed that, depending on the industry, each enterprise should have special rules to ensure cybersecurity. «It is necessary to protect both employees who work remotely, as well as the work processes themselves, production. A bank, an industrial enterprise or a water supply company must be protected taking into account their specifics, there is no one universal approach,» he concluded.