*** ----> Human errors blamed for 95% cyberattacks in Bahrain | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Human errors blamed for 95% cyberattacks in Bahrain

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A new survey has blamed 95% of the cyberattacks affecting institutions and individuals in Bahrain on human errors. The shocking revelation came during a webinar conducted by NGN International on “Social Engineering: The emotional hack” in cooperation with KnowBe4.

Experts, citing a study published by Deloitte, also pointed out that global cyberattacks increased from 20% in 2019 to 37% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Most of these attacks occurred as a result of work-at home practises, where employees are out of the coverage of cybersecurity systems provided by their companies.”

Experts pointed out that some employees are even using their home computers to access their company’s network, compromising their safety.

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The webinar also reviewed the extends to which Cybercriminals will go during the pandemic. During a case study, the experts discussed a website launched at the beginning of the pandemic displaying the statistics of pandemic death and other details of countries separately.

“This website gained wide popularity, only to be discovered that cybercriminals stole the data of millions of users by making them download malicious software on their phones and other devices.”

The webinar also pointed fingers at individual users, who are the weakest link in cybersecurity. Experts pointed out that cyber criminals monitor their behaviour on the Internet and know their browsing hours, interests, and level of security, which is known as “social engineering”. “They then start targeting the victim by sending them files that attract their attention to download them. This malicious software controls the device and reveals their data such as credit card details.”

The CEO of NGN, Yaqoob Al Awadhi, stressed the significance of boosting investment in cybersecurity systems, in addition to training and educating employees and individuals to avoid huge losses in money and data that may result from cyberattacks.