Businesses urged to tighten security as Middle East revealed as top target for DDoS attacks

Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait listed as top places in the region for hacks

Cyber threats in the Middle East are growing rapidly with the average attack size in 2016 in the region significantly higher than the global average.

So far this year, Saudi Arabia has been the top target for large DDoS attacks in the Middle East with 2/3rds of the region’s largest attacks having targeted the country. Large attacks are classified as anything over 10gbps. Iraq and Kuwait placed second and third on the list respectively.

DDoS or Denial of Service attacks are a type of cyber-attack where hackers and criminals will flood a system from multiple systems that in turn overloads servers and can take critical

With almost every organization now depending on the internet for doing business, the consequences can be disastrous when it’s cut off. The cost of Internet downtime was one of the questions addressed to enterprise, government and education organisations in Arbor Networks’ latest Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents estimate the costs to their organisation to be above $500 per minute, with 7% indicating more than $10,000 per minute. What’s more, a number of respondents elected not to answer this question because they had no idea how much a minute of downtime would cost their organisation.

These worrying figures paint a need for urgent action to be taken.

With Middle East average attack sizes predicted to rise to over 2.5Gbps by the end of 2016, it has never been a more important time for businesses to ensure they are protected. As we move into an era of complete digitization – an Internet of Things – where technology connects everything from people and processes to data and critical services; organizations in the Middle East need to rethink their approach towards this growing threat.